The Catamounts were picked to finish fifth in this season according to the America East preseason poll announced earlier this month. No.15 Stony Brook took the top spot after receiving three first place votes, while Albany and Boston University finished a close second. UMBC received the final first place vote to earn fourth place overall. The University of Vermont, the University of New Hampshire and Binghamton University rounded out the poll.

The Vermont women’s lacrosse team is currently 4-6 in their regular season and 0-1 in conference play. They have earned a fifth place spot in the America East standings, just as the poll predicted. By the end of last season the team finished with a 9-8 record. In America East, Vermont went 2-4 and finished fifth out of seven teams last season.

Vermont added Mary Teeters to the staff as an assistant coach for this upcoming 2013 season. Teeters comes to UVM after a four-year athletic career at Towson University where she acted as the team’s goalie, in which she was a two-time team captain.

“Mary is a welcome addition to our staff,” head coach Jen Johnson said. “She has a good understanding of the game as a two-year captain and standout at Towson. Mary brings a lot of energy and a passion for the game and her connections will help us with our recruiting efforts. We look forward to her contributing those qualities to our program at Vermont.”

The Catamounts suffered a loss to the first place ranked Stony Brook Seawolves 19-5in the first America East contest for both teams on Saturday March 23 from Virtue Field.Stony Brook now is 7-4 all-time against Vermont and won a high-scoring affair, 21-13, last season at home.

Vermont also recently fell to Denver, 13-8, at home on March 20.

Junior attacker Sydney Mas leads UVM in points and goals with 32 and 25, respectively, while sophomore attacker Jessica Roach is second in points with 32 on 17 goals and a team-high 15 assists. Charlotte Lyons, a junior, has started all nine contests in net and enters the contest with 65 stops and a .406 save percentage.

First year Vanessa VanderZalm has proven to be a versatile for the Catamounts this season, and currently leads the team in both draw controls (27) and ground balls (24). The Ontario native’s 2.50 ground balls per game places her second in America East, just behind Christina Sheridan of Boston University. VanderZalm is also second among Vermont players with 11 caused turnovers, and ranks third on the team in both points (18) and goals (15) after scoring a career-high four goals vs. Denver.

With two goals against Denver, Sydney Mas, a junior from Bedford, New York is now tied with Vanessa Cox for second place on the program’s all-time goals list with 133. Mas also has 157 career points, which ties her with Lyn Jordan for fourth place on the all-time points list.

Vanessa VanderZalm and sophomore Taylor Pederson were both selected to compete in the upcoming 2013 FIL Women’s Lacrosse World Cup, taking place between July 10-20 in Oshawa, Ontario. VanderZalm will be competing for Team Canada, and will be joined by Vermont assistant coach Alex Kahoe, who joins the team’s coaching staff. Pedersen will compete for team Israel, which is participating in the tournament for its first time.

The Catamounts begin a three-game road trip, which marks the longest stretch away from home for the team all-season. The stretch includes a matchup at Dartmouth and conference games against Binghamton and New Hampshire. The Catamounts went 2-1 against those three opponents in 2012. There are only seven games remaining before the America East tournament.