Ganfolfi Carries Hofstra Women with Wizardry

by Chris R. Vaccaro | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

Senior Corrine Gandolfi, recently named to the Tewaaraton Trophy watch list, leads Hofstra in goals (12), assists (4), draw controls (20) and caused turnovers (6). © Hofstra University

Corrine Gandolfi doesn’t care much about personal accolades, as long as her team is winning. She received a small plaque signifying her All-America selection last year, to which she asked Hofstra women's lacrosse coach Abby Morgan, “What am I going to do with this? All this stuff ends up under my bed.”

Gandolfi's modesty is twofold, though. For Hofstra to win, Gandolfi needs to be at her best, which means awards can come piling in. So far this season, she has played beyond expectation.

"What she wants more is the team trophy and team success," Morgan said.

The team’s leading scorer since her sophomore season, Gandolfi increased her offseason focus on defensive awareness and draw controls and it has paid off. She leads the Pride with 20 draw controls in four games, 10 of which came against Albany on March 1.

“A lot of them are luck of the draw,” she said modestly, “picking up balls in the scrum. We don’t get a lot of them clean.”

Let Gandolfi tell you what she wants about the draw controls, but hands down, she’s one of the most athletic players on the field, and that was a major buying point for Morgan when she recruited Gandolfi out of Northport High School on Long Island.

“The biggest thing that showed was her awareness, her vision,” Morgan said. “She was fast from day one and had the smarts to go to the right spaces. She was even making no-look passes in high school.”

For Gandolfi, also a member of the 2009-10 U.S. Developmental Team, things weren’t always clean cut on the field. She struggled defensively as a freshman (though she was still an All-Rookie CAA selection) and was hindered by a knee injury during her sophomore year. Her 30 goals and 11 assists would have been fine for average players, but those stats could have been padded even more with a clean bill of health.

“She learned so much about what you can and can’t do when your body is totally healthy,” Morgan said.

The learning curve took a positive turn last season, as Gandolfi blossomed into one of the Colonial Athletic Association’s top plays, grabbing All-CAA and third team All-America honors.

Where does that leave her for 2010? Last week she was selected to the Tewaaraton Trophy watch list, something Morgan said needed to happen with the way she has played the last two seasons. But for Gandolfi, who leads the Pride (3-1) in just about every stat except for goaltending categories, the honors and awards reflect her team more than her as an individual.

“I’d love to score no goals and win a championship,” she said. “This year more so than ever, I feel the urgency to win. I’ll do anything physically to win. It was such an upset the last two seasons, so it feels like we have unfinished business.”

By season’s end, Gandolfi will finish her career in the top 10 in points, goals and assists at Hofstra. The Pride, which received votes in this week's IWLCA Division I poll, plays at No. 4-ranked Penn on Wednesday at 3 p.m. and hosts Rutgers on Saturday at 1 p.m.
   
CAA Women's Lacrosse Notes
Aside from Gandolfi, four other CAA players were selected to the watch list, including Towson’s Hillary Fratzke, who was on it each of the last two seasons, James Madison’s Kim Griffin, Delaware’s Emily Schaknowski and William & Mary’s Grace Golden.... James Madison remains unbeaten. Not only did JMU advance to 3-0 on the early season, the Dukes scored four goals on four straight shots Saturday against Yale. Ariel Lane, who scored twice, Casey Ancarrow and Griffin scored the goals in 1:35 span and beat Yale, 10-4... Old Dominion was the last team in the conference to play a game this season. It opened up against American University March 6 and lost 12-10. It marked the first time in 19 games that American beat ODU.