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2026 Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse Preview

NakasSydney2025RIT
Will Leiphart

Women's Lacrosse | 2/11/2026 1:00:00 PM

Starting the season with numerous road trips, the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team seeks a return to the Liberty League Tournament in 2026.

Guided by interim head coach Ben Gaebel, who was the team's leader from 2013-2022, and assistant Ariel Shweiki, the Golden Knights return much of the team's offense from 2025, including five of the top six scorers. The one glaring departure from the Green and Gold's offense is Madelynn Barnum, the program's all-time leading scorer and the 2025 Liberty League Player of the Year thanks to her single-season record of 91 points on 75 goals and 16 assists. The Knights will also need to replace a pair of starters on defense in Rylee Ganter and Meredith James, also graduate students in 2025, who started every game a year ago.

While the go-to scorer in Barnum is gone, Clarkson has plenty of options to reproduce her output in the aggregate. Junior Gabby Cranfield became the fourth Golden Knight to lead the Liberty League in assists in the past decade, joining Christine Wright, Sydney Roderick, and former teammate Julia Lavarnway, but she also was able to find the back of the net 19 times last year. She will likely be looking for classmate Makenna Cassin (24 goals) and seniors Brooklynne Perrigo (28 goals), Morgan Kenna (18 goals), and Sydney Nakas (17 goals) as that group each had big games in 2025. Perrigo scored three or more goals on six occasions from the midfield, while Cassin and Kenna both turned the trick three times as attackers.

Clarkson has a bit more in the way of offense in reserve as well, including juniors Abie Leighton and Ava Goyette and sophomore Lillian Pomerleau in addition to first-year collegians Leah Hoeksema, Jane Goodwin, and Sophia Reitmeyer.

Barnum took a significant amount of draws for the past few years, but both Nakas and Cassin topped 50 draw controls in 2025. The Knights bring back plenty of experience in the way of Perrigo, Merissa McCorry, Isabella Koproski, Caroline Kloc, Lauren McCorry, and Annie Dufault. All of those players saw time in half of the games or more. Additionally, the team adds Karli Scherpf, Audrey Burke, and Kayla Zehr, who also was a member of the Clarkson soccer team in the fall.

Defensively, Clarkson brings back Maeve Bartell, who has been a starter for the Knights since day one of her collegiate career, and she will lead a relatively inexperienced group guarding the goal. Sophomore Madison Kolstad is on a similar path as Bartell, having started every game but Senior Day in her first collegiate campaign. Senior Gabby O'Connell, junior Jane Biaglow, and sophomore Zoe Patrick have played as backups behind the graduated Rylee Ganter and Meredith James the past few seasons and will have more opportunity this season. Clarkson also adds Mea Tranquilli as a defensive midfielder and Maureen McGinley to the fray for the defensive corps.

For a third straight year, the Golden Knights will have three goalkeepers from which to choose and all have played significant minutes. Riley Donovan emerged as the starter down the stretch and in league play a year ago, recording a 10.36 goals against average with a .473 save percentage, while senior Jennaca McGill had a nearly identical 10.45 goals against average in her appearances. It was just those two last season as Clare Tucker was recovering from injury, but Tucker played in 11 games with four starts in her first season with the Knights, making 30 saves in 254 minutes between the pipes.

 
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Players Mentioned

Madelynn Barnum

#13 Madelynn Barnum

M
5' 6"
Graduate Student
Rylee Ganter

#9 Rylee Ganter

M/D
5' 8"
Graduate Student
Meredith James

#18 Meredith James

D
5' 3"
Graduate Student
Maeve Bartell

#15 Maeve Bartell

D
5' 8"
Senior
Jane Biaglow

#21 Jane Biaglow

D
5' 2"
Junior
Makenna Cassin

#33 Makenna Cassin

A/M
5' 5"
Junior
Gabby Cranfield

#23 Gabby Cranfield

A
5' 5"
Junior
Riley Donovan

#16 Riley Donovan

GK
5' 6"
Junior
Annie Dufault

#19 Annie Dufault

M
5' 7"
Sophomore
Ava Goyette

#17 Ava Goyette

A
5' 3"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Madelynn Barnum

#13 Madelynn Barnum

5' 6"
Graduate Student
M
Rylee Ganter

#9 Rylee Ganter

5' 8"
Graduate Student
M/D
Meredith James

#18 Meredith James

5' 3"
Graduate Student
D
Maeve Bartell

#15 Maeve Bartell

5' 8"
Senior
D
Jane Biaglow

#21 Jane Biaglow

5' 2"
Junior
D
Makenna Cassin

#33 Makenna Cassin

5' 5"
Junior
A/M
Gabby Cranfield

#23 Gabby Cranfield

5' 5"
Junior
A
Riley Donovan

#16 Riley Donovan

5' 6"
Junior
GK
Annie Dufault

#19 Annie Dufault

5' 7"
Sophomore
M
Ava Goyette

#17 Ava Goyette

5' 3"
Junior
A