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ALBANY, N.Y – The College of Saint Rose will use its time this spring to integrate a talented group of newcomers into its culture of competitiveness and excellence.
 
The Golden Knights are set to return to the pitch for the first time in 471 days this Saturday with a match at Daemen College. It will mark the first contest since their run to the 2019 NCAA Championship National Semifinals.
 
The game is an outcome of Saint Rose taking the proactive step to independently schedule several games throughout the next two months after the Northeast-10 Conference Council of Presidents received and approved a unanimous recommendation from the NE10 Athletics Council to cancel plans for repositioned regular season and championship competition in the Conference's seven traditional fall sports.
 
"First, I'm just so excited that these young women have the chance to compete. We're over a year into this pandemic and for these players who have trained with so much heart and intensity all fall and now into the spring to actually have a contest ahead of them is wonderful," said head coach Laurie Darling Gutheil. "We know Daemen is going to be a very stern test because they have seven returning starters from their 2019 NCAA Tournament team. It is going to be a good a measuring stick for our new players to really grasp the collegiate level."
 
Looking back, the Golden Knights 2019 campaign had a familiar theme to it. Saint Rose tied an NE10 record with its eighth league postseason championship and advanced to its seventh NCAA Championship semifinal within a 12-year span. The Golden Knights also won at least 20 games for the eighth time in that stretch.
 
A trio of All-Americans are gone from that squad in forward Nina Predanic, midfielder Morgan Burchhardt, and back Deanna Trongone. Twelve talented newcomers though have had time throughout the fall to become familiar with their new teammates and the spring will provide another opportunity to establish themselves within the program.
 
"So we have a really great group of players. We have a lot of newcomers in our program and we were able to get a lot of positive things accomplished while integrating them into our system and that has been fantastic. The spring has been very positive as well and we are continuing to really emphasize the key components of playing behavior and our cohesion as a collective group, while giving our players confidence wherever they play on the pitch," said Darling Gutheil
 
It will thus be a different look with so many new faces and an unusual spring campaign, but it'll be enjoyable to see a program that has recorded 20 consecutive winning seasons, 11th most in NCAA Division II annals, get back on the pitch.

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