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CHC’s Nate Tharp (right, with ball in stick) blows past Rich Reichert of American International.

When Chestnut Hill College president Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, was presented with a men’s lacrosse helmet and then strode out to midfield to drop a ball for a ceremonial face-off, you knew there was something special about last Thursday’s home game.

It was, in fact the first men’s lacrosse contest ever played at CHC’s home venue, the artificial turf Victory Field complex. To make the occasion even more memorable, the Griffins won the game that followed, staving off a late comeback attempt by visiting American International College (Springfield, Mass.) to prevail, 8-7. Both Chestnut Hill and the AIC Yellow Jackets brought 1-1 records into the encounter.

The Griffins lax squad launches its inaugural season under the command of Richard Carrington, a native of Charlottesville, Va. who played collegiate lacrosse at North Carolina’s Mars Hill College. He later served as an assistant coach at his alma mater and at Kenyon College, and he has coached at the high school level, as well.

CHC senior captain Carley Glass (right) shoots the ball over the stick of American International goalie Gina Gallo.

With only a handful of returning players and a large group of beginners, there’s no question that Chestnut Hill College will be undergoing one of those fabled “rebuilding” years in women’s lacrosse.

Yet even in a 21-7 loss in last Thursday’s season opener against visiting American International College (Springfield, Mass.), there were stretches when the Griffins showed promise.

“For half of our team, this is the first women’s lacrosse game they’ve ever seen, let alone participated in,” pointed out Chestnut Hill coach Lindsey Graham, who is also a newcomer to the CHC program. Hired last summer, she had little chance to do any meaningful recruiting, and has instead managed to stir up interest among athletically inclined students who were already enrolled at the college.

Graham was formerly an assistant coach with the Division I program at Canisius College, where she was also a volleyball assistant. She came out of a strong scholastic lacrosse program at Spring-Ford High School, and went on to play for Ithaca College.

On one of the last dry days before our most recent Nor’easter arrived, the girls lacrosse players from Germantown Friends jogged down School House Lane to engage in a pre-season scrimmage at Penn Charter. The Wednesday afternoon encounter proved to be a fairly even match, with the visiting Tigers outscoring the Quakers, 16-14.