Coastal Carolina lacrosse eyes title in final season in Big South

As if taking on the job as Coastal Carolina’s second-ever women’s lacrosse coach wasn’t enough, Kristen Selvage’s challenge became even more arduous when Keri White went down with an ACL tear prior to the season opener.

White – the Chanticleers’ leading returning scorer – is expected to miss her senior season, leaving a void in the squad’s offense.

If last week’s season opener was any indication, fellow senior Sara Nolan may just be up to the challenge of taking on that lead role.

Nolan scored all four of Coastal’s goals in a season-opening 5-4 loss to Elon.

With last year’s leading scorer, Jen Cosgrove (47 goals, 10 assists), having graduated and White (39, 14) injured, Nolan (26, 6) now will have a bigger role as the Chants hunt for a Big South title in their final run before moving into the Atlantic Sun Conference.

“Nolan stepped in right away. She knew she had to step up and be a leader,” said Selvage, whose team gets back on the field Sunday for a match at Jacksonville. “I think some younger players on offense, as we get rolling later in the season, will stand out as well but [last Friday] was her day and we’re really proud because we needed her.”

Selvage was hired as the head coach last August after the program’s first coach, Jaime Sellers, resigned following three seasons. Selvage said she and her assistants – Katie McConnell and Kelly Hamilton – have worked hard since then, renovating the team’s playbook and style.

“We have a completely different offensive philosophy than they did last year, and the defensive strategy has also significantly changed,” Selvage said. “We have really put a lot of time into revamping pretty much everything from top to bottom in the program and it’s exciting to watch and be a part of. They’ve really bought into it. It has been great here so far.”

Selvage said there’s still plenty of things to work out, but Coastal is aiming high before making a move to the Atlantic Sun conference.

“We want a shot at the Big South title. We’re not kidding around,” she said. “These seniors, this is their fourth year in the program’s fourth year of existence so we’re doing everything we can to give them the perfect send-off – the Big South title and a shot at the NCAA [tournament]. We’ll take it one step at a time and we’ll get better every game; we know we will”

As for the team’s strengths thus far?

“I think we’re really versatile. We can do a number of things defensively, and we’ve got a lot of different tricks up our sleeve offensively, although we didn’t use them [in the season opener] as well as I’d have liked us to,” Selvage said. “Also, we have a great goalkeeper in Jenna Stover, who has a lot of experience and we’re really just a tight family.”

Senior midfielder Nyra Constant, the only player in the Chanticleers’ history to start in every single game in the first three years of the sport’s existence at the school, believes this year’s squad boasts the most talent and promise she has seen in her time with the Chanticleers.

“Our defense has been very strong all four years, which is awesome. And we’ve become more communicative; talking is a huge part of lacrosse,” said Constant, a All-Big South Second-Team defender last year. “We’ve done that on both ends and we’ve actually started to connect both ends of the field. We’re all very positive and we fight hard.”

And while Coastal’s play on the field is strong, Constant said the team is tight-knit off the field.

“We’re best friends on and off the field,” she said. “Obviously on the field, we’re teammates and we push each other. That’s all we can really ask of each other. Off the field, we have such a good dynamic; we hang out all the time. I think that really helps on the field, too, because we have always played for each other and always will.”

Selvage praised Constant for her physical prowess and leadership abilities, attributes the coach noticed immediately upon taking the job.

“Fast, athletic and resilient,” Selvage said, describing Constant. “She has speed, she’s a hard worker and disciplined. When we first started coaching her, we had to reel in her discipline a little bit. Not her behavior, more or less her stick and whatnot and we had to fine-tune a lot of things on defense. But once she started to play under our philosophy, she has really shined for us. Obviously she shined in the past, but now more so I think.”

It will be Constant and eight other Coastal seniors’ last shot at a title, which they believe is well within reach.

“Obviously I want us to finish first. Our biggest goal is to win the Big South and we really think that’s possible this year,” Constant said. “We have such great, young talent and so it’s a mix of youth with our experience; we have so many seniors. Our seniors have been really building up our freshmen, sophomores and juniors. The mental game is a big part of it and, mentally, we’re prepared to win the Big South. We just have to go out there and perform and hopefully knock out all the schools in our way.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 7:31 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina lacrosse eyes title in final season in Big South."