


News & Notes
VanThof sisters drawn to meet as opponents
Siblings to tangle in Florida-Loyola clash; Carraway pushes Hoyas

Saturday’s women’s lacrosse game between No. 6 Florida and No. 17 Loyola Maryland at noon at Ridley Athletic Complex will include a personal tinge for
“I think any time when we’re competing against each other, it’s just a weird feeling,” the younger VanThof said Wednesday. “When I grew up, she was my club coach for lacrosse, and she was always the one pushing me to be a better athlete and just pushing me in general. I think how times have changed from her being my club coach to her now being a Division I coach, and we’re going up against each other.”
Said the older VanThof, who has been an assistant coach for the Gators (1-1) since 2017: “I always want the best for her, and I love to see her excel and I love to see her grow over the years. … Now to see it and for her to showcase it, I just don’t want her to showcase it against me.”
The sisters, who are separated by more than five years, have not played together for the same team in nine years, but remain close. They call each other after every game that Taylor plays or Taryn coaches, Taylor wears the same No. 18 that Taryn wore when she played at Loyola, and Taylor’s locker at Ridley sits across from a board with the names of past Greyhounds All-Americans — a list that includes Taryn, who was honored three times.
Taylor has already broken two of Taryn’s school records for draw controls and needs only 26 more to pass Taryn’s career mark of 318 draw controls. Taryn said she roots for her sister.
Both sisters said their mother,
“There will be no hard feelings no matter what the outcome of the game is,” Taylor said. “I always know that she’s my biggest supporter, and I am hers.”
“Obviously, pregame will be a little different from postgame,” Taryn said.
“We had a limited supply during the game,” the Annapolis native and St. Mary’s graduate said. “So [I] had to run that back up to the ref for the next faceoff. … That would have been some cool memorabilia maybe for my desk in my room or something to hang up.”
Carraway has scored 70 career goals and is on pace for a career-high 45 this spring, which would make him the eighth player in school history to reach the 100-goal mark. But through two games, he has five assists, which he credited to trying to expand his game.
Avoiding the program’s first 0-3 start since 1966 might be a difficult task at No. 14 North Carolina (3-0) on Saturday, but senior attackman
“It’s a group of guys that is not going to fall apart,” he said. “We’re going to stick together. I think the family aspect of this program has always been around in my time here, and it will always be around long after I’m gone.”
Senior
“He’s day-to-day,” Toomey said. “I would anticipate that he’ll be back next week. We like his progress, but didn’t feel like we wanted him running around with the ball in his stick and putting added pressure on him.”
As thrilled as she was about Cordingley’s scoring for the No. 14 Blue Jays (2-0), coach
“Rory is the one we have hunting the goalie on our ride,” Tucker said. “So she’s exceptional at that. She knows how to hunt the ball, throw some really great checks that turn the ball over, and literally she did her job. That’s what she has been known for for us, and she really did a big one for us.”