The biggest problem for the women’s lacrosse team this spring hasn’t been replacing departed seniors or dealing with the uncooperative Ithaca weather. Rather, it has been the squad’s health — in particular, its high-scoring pair of senior captains — that has been the biggest cause for concern.

Senior attacks Kim Medla and Megan Howell, the Blue and Gold’s active career leading goal and point scorers, are nursing tendinosis and a torn meniscus in their knees, respectively. Medla said both captains assume they’ll be sore but hope not to miss any game action.

“I’ll be able to play, I’ve just never had problems with my knees,” Medla said. “After the fall I got tendinosis. I go in for treatment before and after practice. [Howell] has a torn meniscus. She had surgery on it over break. She tweaked it again during practice, but she’ll be OK.”

Medla, who has 99 career goals entering tomorrow’s season-opening game against Wells College, will probably not eclipse the Ithaca career goal mark of 170 set by Shawn Benoliel ’82, but if she duplicates her 46-goal performance from last season she’ll finish in third place on the all-time list.

Likewise, Howell will likely finish among the top-10 career goal scorers by the time she graduates in May.

Medla and Howell are only two members of the 25-player team. This year’s squad is made up of six seniors, three juniors, seven sophomores and nine freshmen. Head Coach Karen Hollands said this year’s large freshman class has been particularly impressive so far.

“The returning girls haven’t completely surprised me because I’ve seen them all play before,” Hollands said. “But the new girls have done some pretty good things so far. Some of them could play right away.”

The Bombers will have to fill the void left by starting goalie Lindsay Mayfield ’07, but Hollands said last year’s backup, senior Emily Brooks, will have no problem sliding into the full-time starting position.

“Brooks is our senior, so it’s her job to lose,” Hollands said.

Also gone from last year’s team is Asti Kutzer ’07, who Medla said will be particularly difficult to replace because of her versatility.

“Asti is going to be tough [to replace] because she was our center and a pretty big powerhouse on both the attack and defense,” Medla said.

The South Hill squad returns eight of the 12 players that started the final game of last season, including Brooks, Medla and Howell. Other returning starters include junior attack Becky Bedard, sophomore midfielders Lauren Fitzgerald and Sarah Cox and senior midfielder Sarah Knauf.

Cox was an impact freshman last season, starting all 16 games and tallying 19 goals and five assists. Fitzgerald, who only started three games and finished with four goals, came on down the stretch last season. The two midfielders and Bedard (21 goals, team-high 30 assists) round out Ithaca’s offensive attack. Sophomore Kylie McClure also had a stellar freshman campaign, finishing with 13 goals and 11 assists in 14 starts.

As Medla and Howell go, so too will the Bombers. Along with senior defender Suzy Lull, the Bombers’ trio of captains forms a unique leadership group, Medla said.

“The three of us have a pretty good dynamic,” Medla said. “My coach always talks about how we have Suzy, who is always there for someone to talk to. Howell really knows the game, and she’s really good at getting people amped up. And she just calls me the jokester. I make people laugh.”

The three captains and the rest of the Blue and Gold got a chance to scrimmage some quality opponents Sunday, something Lull said was great to build off of.

“We scrimmaged Hamilton College, Hartwick [College] and [Buffalo State],” Lull said. “It went great. We went 1–1 against Hamilton, which was huge for us because they’re ranked sixth in the nation. It also wasn’t too cold, which was nice.”

The Bombers can only hope the weather continues to cooperate, as they are scheduled to face Wells College at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Cornell University’s Schoelkopf Field.