Longwood University Athletics

FARMVILLE, Va. – Following a sophomore campaign in which she scored a career-high 43 goals, Longwood junior attacker Kaitlin Luccarelli was named to the Preseason All-Big South team, the conference office announced Tuesday.
 
Luccarelli was one of 13 players selected to the preseason squad by the league's head coaches, earning at-large honors as the fourth attacker on the All-Big South roster.
 
A native of Fairfax, Va., Luccarelli enters the 2019 season as the Big South's No. 4 returning goal scorer and just 19 goals shy of reaching 100 for her career. She was Longwood's second-leading goal scorer as a freshman in 2017 and led the team in that category last season while also ranking 12^th nationally in shot percentage at .581.
 
Luccarelli was an offensive force for the Lancers all season long in 2018, scoring in 16 of her 18 games while netting multiple goals 14 times, including in 11 consecutive games. She scored 22 of her 43 goals in Big South play, including a career-high five in a 15-8 win over Gardner-Webb on April 7.
 
Luccarelli is part of a nine-member class of Longwood juniors that makes up the core of the Lancers heading in the program's seventh season under head coach Elaine Jones. Luccarelli is one of six returning starters from that class, joined by defenders Corri Calandra and Olivia Zubillaga, midfielders Molly Barkman and Dana Joss, and fellow attacker Lexi Davis.
 
With those six returning starters and 13 returning letterwinners on the roster from 2018, Big South head coaches pegged the Lancers for a fifth-place finish in the 2019 preseason poll. Longwood received three fourth-place votes, three fifth-place votes and one sixth-place vote. The Lancers have finished inside the Big South's top three twice in their first six years as a member of the conference, all of which have come under Jones.
 
The Lancers open the 2019 season with a bang, facing three straight Atlantic 10 opponents in Duquesne (Feb. 10), George Washington (Feb. 16) and George Mason (Feb. 23). The George Washington and George Mason games will both take places on the Lancers' home turf at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field to kick off a seven-game home slate.

2019 Preseason All-Big South Women's Lacrosse Team
A: Abby Hormes, High Point
A: Melissa Placek, Campbell
A: Adrian Rius, Radford
M: Samantha Herman, High Point
M: Callie Bonnel, Radford
M: Sam Carey, Campbell
D: Meredith Chapman, High Point
D: Amanda Chasin, Campbell
D: Hudson Roarick, Presbyterian
GK: Alaina Girani, Winthrop
AL: Kaitlin Luccarelli, A, Longwood
AL: Emily Torris, D, Winthrop
AL: Ashley Britton, M, High Point

Preseason Offensive Player of the Year
Abby Hormes, A, High Point

Preseason Defensive Player of the Year
Samantha Herman, M, High Point 

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