LOUDONVILLE, NY – While a new era has dawned for Siena Women's Lacrosse with Danielle Schwan-Tetreault now orchestrating as the head coach, the Harvard graduate and Guilderland High product made it clear that she plans on maintaining the consistency of the culture that she helped create all while working toward overcoming the next challenge. 

"It obviously is a change stepping into a leadership role," said coach Danielle Schwan-Tetreault, who was named the head coach of the program in August 2023 after spending the previous six seasons as either an associate or assistant coach with the program.    

"But this is a team that I have a lot of investment into so in terms of what I've been doing on-and-off the field—we've pretty much stayed the same.  Our culture is strong here. That's something that we kept consistent. In terms of integrating new players into the program, that's something you change on a year-to-year basis. You find your strengths and your weaknesses and you really want to highlight your strengths."

While the Saints have reached the MAAC Championship Game in three of the previous five seasons, their ultimate goal of winning a title has remained on the horizon.

Playing top-tier competition has often been a gateway to realizing a team's full potential.

That journey begins this Sunday when the Saints host #14 Johns Hopkins at Hickey Field with an opening draw set for 12 p.m.

The game will be featured on ESPN+ with Chris Watson on the play-by-play and Danielle Lynch serving as the color commentator.  It is a first-time meeting between the teams. 

For a third consecutive season, the Saints was chosen to finish in second place in the annual MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll in a vote submitted by the league's head coaches it was announced by the conference office this past Wednesday.

Siena, who went 12-7 a season ago, has 19 returning players including three of its top four scorers in Kelly Logue, Grace Dobrzynski and Jordan Bentley.  Of the 307 points that were scored during the 2023 season, 208 of those points or 67% were from returning players. 

Additionally, Siena received recognition for two players onto the Preseason All-MAAC team with Bentley, a redshirt junior, and graduate student Jenna Colabufo named to the squad.

Bentley earned MAAC Second Team honors last season after being named MAAC Offensive Player of the Week on two occasions. 

The Queensbury, NY native appeared in all 19 games and led the Saints in draw controls with 68, was second on the team in goals with 39 and ranked fourth on the team in points with 48. 

Colabufo earned MAAC First Team honors at defense, starting all 19 games and led the Saints in caused turnovers with 14, was second in ground balls with 22 and was ranked fifth on the team in draw controls with 26.  

The Blue Jays went just 9-9 in 2023 under head coach Tim McCormack, however it faced one of the country's most difficult schedules with 10 games against nationally-ranked opponent. 

Johns Hopkins went 4-6 in those games and were a NCAA Tournament qualifying team before losing to No. 2 Syracuse in the NCAA Sweet 16 last May. 

Hopkins, who competes in the Big Ten Conference brings back more than 96 percent (218 of 226) of its goals and more than 97 percent of its assists (118 of 121).  Ava Angello was the leading scorer with 53 points and 40 goals while Maeve Barker (24 goals, 21 assists) and Campbell Case (24 goals, 19 assists) also eclipsed the 40-point mark.