After one of the most successful and decorated careers in the history of Lafayette women’s lacrosse, former two-time captain Sarah Bennett ’23 is making her return to College Hill after being named the team’s next assistant coach.
“It’s been really great being welcomed back. I was really pleasantly surprised by the administrators and professors that reached out [to me] after I was hired. That was really wonderful,” Bennett said. “It just made me feel really good about the decision that I have made and like I was being supported from afar.”
After finishing her career with 40 goals and 65 points while playing in every single game throughout her four years, the Larchmont, New York native started with the team as a coach on June 1, added to the team to supplement a staff led by head coach Katie McConnell and assistant coach Nikki Prestiano.
“Everything that [Coach McConnell] is doing, from recruiting to looking into new drills and every other hat that coaches wear … she is letting me sit with her while she does it or she’s walking me through it,” Bennett said. “While I am very familiar with the program and I have a good understanding of the Xs and Os and the way that the program is run, I really don’t know what I don’t know. I am learning so much from her and she has been really great.”
Following the announcement that Bennett would be returning, players were excited to continue to work with her.
“It feels very natural to have Coach Sarah back as a coach. Her leadership was a key aspect of our program last year, so it does not feel like much has changed,” sophomore defender Kendra Daly said.
“I think [the players] were excited but a little nervous at first, because while this does happen with other programs a lot, no one on the team including myself has ever dealt with this before, so I think it’s a little bit of feeling it out as we go, but I think that it has turned into something that is really good,” Bennett said. “We have only been together a week now and it is already feeling like the right decision.”
Before accepting the job, Bennett reached out to some of her former teammates to make sure that returning to coach at Lafayette made sense to be her next chapter.
“[The alumni] were incredibly supportive about it but also very realistic which I appreciated. I think it is going to be a reason for them to come back more and stay involved with the program,” Bennett said. “They are reaching out about how [the class of 2028 recruiting class] is looking, so the fact that they are already graduated but are still engaged and are wanting to know how these next classes are looking has been super important.”
After the team fell to last place in 2023, Bennett looks to provide a mixture of new energy and continued leadership to a squad that went 2-15 last year.
“Having Coach Sarah on our coaching staff will strengthen us as a program because she knows exactly what our day to day is like. Therefore, she knows what will motivate us and make us better,” Daly said.
“I think we really have an identity as a team now, whether it’s on the offensive or defensive side of the ball,” Bennett said. “Now we can really hit the ground running and go forward.”
