LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team will start its 2026 season having won three consecutive Centennial Conference Championships, highlighted by recent runs to the final four during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. With five preseason All-Americans, including the preseason national player of the year, expectations are high for the Diplomats who find themselves at No. 6 in the national rankings entering the spring.
Position Breakdown
Attack
Lauren Pittman earned preseason national player of the year honors from USA Lacrosse magazine as she brings 185 career goals and 251 career points into her senior season. An All-American during her sophomore and junior seasons, Pittman is sixth in F&M history for total goals and also ranks third all-time with 218 career draw controls. She has scored at least 50 goals during each of her first three seasons with the Diplomats. Devyn Crone, an all-region and all-conference performer last season, started every game in 2025 and dished out 48 assists for the fifth-most in a single season. She has 137 career points entering her senior campaign. Sophomores Alexandra Proefrock and Annie Marshall each tallied double-digit goals during their rookie campaigns. Both those players were at their best in the big moments as Proefrock recorded hat tricks against Haverford and William Smith, while Marshall scored three times in the NCAA Tournament victory versus Messiah. Skyler Holmes, Svia Russman-Araya, and Emma Smith also have valuable experience from the team's recent championship runs.
Newcomers: Sumi Heffernan, Marla Lafferty, Riley Ng-Knepper.
Midfield
A trio of seniors are the most experienced players for the midfielders. Julia Carbon started all but one game last season and secured 102 draw controls for a top-10 single season performance in program history. Claire Book is one of three captains this season and has scored 25 career goals to provide another option for the offense. Fellow senior Myranda Beebe also has double-digit goals during her career after seeing time in 19 of the team's 21 contests a season ago. Gretta Harnish is yet another experienced option who has also seen time on defense with three starts a season ago. Rose Dunne and Shea Dekshenieks were key contributors in the midfield during their rookie season in 2025. Joining the sophomore class are transfers Blaine Cosby and Siena Pitone who played at Division I Colorado and Canisius, respectively, last spring.
Newcomers: Daryn Foertsch, Sophie Harris, Grace Kotchick, Hope West
Defense
Senior captain Belle Dintino returns as the leader of the defense as she has started all 65 games of her collegiate career. Also earning All-America honors from USA Lacrosse during each of her three seasons, Dintino was named the Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore. Entering her final season with the Diplomats, Dintino is already fourth in program history in caused turnovers (87) and 13th in ground balls (122), while adding 93 draw controls to her career statistics. Seniors Lucy Rogers and Mia Geignetter also have starting experience. Rogers had career highs in both ground balls (19) and caused turnovers (13) last season, while Geignetter also her first appearance in the starting lineup. Junior Sophia Geibel has started 39 of her 43 career appearances. The two-year starter will be another key part of the defensive unit as she has 20 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers during her career. Sophomore Sydney Birchard saw some starting opportunities during her rookie season and will look to build on that foundation.
Newcomers: Hawley Dick, Abby McIlvain
Goalie
Sara DiGiovanni is another tri-captain following first-team All-Centennial Conference and Centennial Conference Tournament MVP honors in 2025. DiGiovanni stopped 52 percent of the shots she faced while allowing just 8.43 goals per game during her first year as the full-time starter. Despite just one season of starting experience, DiGiovanni is already among the top 15 goalies in program history for both goals against average and save percentage. Backing her up last year was sophomore Rachel Jones who played in five games and allowed just 8.39 goals per game while stopping over 41 percent of the shots she faced.
Newcomers: Paytyn Crisp
Schedule
The Diplomats consistently test themselves with one of the most challenging schedules in the nation and this year is no exception as every one of the Diplomats' non-conference opponents appears in the preseason top 25. That is in addition to the always challenging Centennial Conference schedule where Gettysburg and Haverford join the Diplomats in the top 25 from the conference. The 2026 season begins with No. 9 Washington and Lee this Sunday and additionally features a showdown with top-ranked Middlebury during the middle of March.
Centennial Conference Preseason Poll
Despite the Diplomats being three-time defending Centennial Conference Champions, Gettysburg was voted as the preseason favorite in a poll of the Centennial Conference head coaches. The Bullets took six of the nine first-place votes to edge out F&M by three points for the top spot. Franklin & Marshall garnered the remaining three first-place votes. Haverford, Muhlenberg, and Washington College were predicted to fill out the remaining three playoff positions as the Centennial Conference Tournament will feature the top five teams from the regular season standings.
Coaching Staff
Renee Dowd enters her second season on the Diplomats' sidelines as she and her staff were named the Centennial Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in 2025 after leading Franklin & Marshall to the conference title. Returning from that coaching staff that led F&M to an 18-3 record are assistant coaches Julie Gardner and Chris Tongel. Emma Hagg joins the team as an assistant coaching following her decorated playing career at Messiah.
