This past week, Kaitlyn Shaw, midfielder for the women’s lacrosse team, broke the program’s all-time point record, notching 216 in her highest scoring season yet. The fourth-year marketing major and team captain is no stranger to accolades though, having been named to All-SUNYAC teams for the past two seasons and etching her name into program record books time after time.
Shaw started playing lacrosse in sixth grade and began to take it seriously in high school, before eventually deciding to play college lacrosse her junior year. She was pulled to SUNY New Paltz by then head coach Keith Detelj and her love of the campus. After her first season, Randy Vite became head coach during the 2021-2022 season, and the team began to soar. Shaw credits Vite for much of her success at New Paltz.
Shaw’s first year was marked by the ongoing pandemic, but even through that, she was able to find success and community with the program. “I’m so confident in this school that even through the COVID experience of my freshman-sophomore year. I had no doubt that this place was the place for me and I stand by that today.”
The welcoming and supportive atmosphere of the team has been there all along for Shaw. Now, as a team leader, she’s had the opportunity to facilitate that for her teammates.
“My main goal is to make sure that no matter what years people are, no matter if they play or if they start, they always have a voice on this team and they play just as big of a part as a senior on the team,” she said. “There’s no hierarchy, there’s no ranking system. I think one of my main things is cultivating such a strong team culture and bond. I think part of the reason we’ve been so successful this year is because of our chemistry on the field and off the field.”
As the only captain on the team, she has had a lot of responsibility for this but felt that leadership came naturally to her, and many other teammates always step up as leaders for each other anyway.
“You don’t need to be the captain to be a leader. It’s just a name; it doesn’t mean much.” Shaw believes that having multiple leaders has made the team stronger and looks forward to some of the underclassmen taking up her captain position once her time here is done.
Shaw does not keep up with the stats, but when she found out about breaking the women’s lacrosse all-time point record, she felt grateful for being able to help the team through all her efforts.
“I’m just so proud of myself that I’ve helped this program to be able to achieve something like that and that all these points that I’ve accumulated to this record have helped us beat teams like Oneonta and Brockport, big wins that the program hasn’t seen before,” she said. “So, it’s really satisfying for myself, but I’m also so happy that it’s helped the program.”
The Hawks are 13-3 this season as they head towards the SUNYAC tournament this week.
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