‘We need to empty the tank’: Drexel women’s lacrosse is on a mission in the NCAA Tournament

The Drexel women’s lacrosse team was getting stressed.

The team had tuned into the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday night hopeful that their resumé would be enough for an at-large bid. They had done everything they could — compiled a 13-5 record, beaten ranked teams in Penn State and Navy, reached the Coastal Athletic Association final, and held a No. 20 ranking by RPI — and yet, the show kept progressing without the Dragons being called.

Team after team was announced, until there was only one at-large bid left on the bracket. At last, Drexel flashed across the screen. And the room erupted.

“To see our kids just explode up into the air and every single person be so excited and almost brought to tears was unbelievable. That’s why we do what we do,” said coach Katie O’Donnell. “It makes all the hard stuff totally worth it. And I think they feel that way, too. I think the emotions they felt Sunday night were super gratifying, in terms of all the hard work they’ve done so far this year.”

The Dragons will meet Princeton on Friday (4 p.m., ESPN+) in the first round, hosted on No. 2 seed Boston College’s campus.

Drexel narrowly missed out on an automatic bid with a 9-6 loss to top-seeded Stony Brook in the CAA finals on Saturday. Their at-large selection keeps their streak of NCAA Tournament appearances alive at four, but their first tournament win has eluded them.

While the team has become used to playing at this time of year, its class of fifth-years still remembers when that wasn’t the norm. As sophomores in 2021, the group helped the Dragons secure their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid, where they fell to Rutgers.

Among that fifth-year class is Glenmoore native and Downingtown West grad Corinne Bednarik, who fueled the Dragons’ trip to the CAA championship this season with 11 points over Hofstra in the semifinals. Bednarik, a team captain, splits her time between midfield and attack and is a two-time CAA Attacker of the Year.

“Whatever you need her to do so that we can win games as a team is what she’ll do. A lot of times, it’s scoring points,” O’Donnell said. “She’s really great at scoring goals. And she’s also the first one to celebrate one of her teammate’s goals. … She makes people around her better.”

Six members of Bednarik’s class returned to Drexel for their extra year of eligibility with a mission, and one last opportunity, to secure that first tournament win.

“I think we’re definitely pretty tired of losing, but we also know what it takes to get there,” Bednarik said. “And I think playing such great teams this year has also set us up for success.”

Drexel is in Bednarik’s blood. Her grandfather, Albert, played football there back in the days when the Dragons still had a program. But she is also forging her own path, and when she hangs up the cleats, her name will be all over Drexel’s record books. Bednarik already set the single-season points record with 98 points in 18 games this season, and is one point shy of the career record of 292.

None of it is surprising to O’Donnell, who has known Bednarik since she was in elementary school. O’Donnell, who hails from West Chester and played lacrosse for Penn State, first met Bednarik when she played for a club team coached by O’Donnell’s mother. Bednarik wanted extra practice and ended up taking private lessons with her future college coach.

“Anyone who is in 90-degree weather on a turf, getting extra shots, doing extra work when they don’t have to, I’m not surprised when they turn out the way Corinne did,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell followed Bednarik’s high school career from afar until the pair was reunited when O’Donnell joined Drexel’s coaching staff in 2022.

Having a player with the fourth-most points in the NCAA this season certainly makes O’Donnell’s life easier. So does having the top goalie in the conference in Jenika Cuocco. The redshirt sophomore leads the nation in saves per game (11.94) and anchors one of the stingiest defenses in the NCAA.

As they gear up to face Princeton for the first time since 2016, Bednarik said the team is focusing on the mantra “win one to earn one.”

“To keep going, we need to empty the tank and put everything out there,” she said. “We need one more to keep playing, and I think going into this game, that’s our mindset. ... I think as long as we play our game, connect defense to offense, and just play our hearts out, I think we can win that game.”