Robert Morris women’s lacrosse athlete Clio Kerr to represent Ireland in 2019 ELF European Championship

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Tim Kelly

MOON TOWNSHIP — Clio Kerr runs with the ball against Canisius on February 20, 2019 (Tim Kelly/RMU Sentry Media).

Logan Carney, Sports Manager

MOON TOWNSHIP — Robert Morris women’s lacrosse attacker/midfielder Clio Kerr has been named to Ireland’s Women’s Senior National team roster for the ELF European Championship after the rosters were released on Thursday. The tournament will take place on July 16-25, 2019 in Netanya, Israel.

This season, the junior has seven goals and has started in all seven of the team’s games. She is coming off a strong perfromance against St. Bonaventure in which she had three points (1g, 2a). In her career at Robert Morris, she has scored 32 goals and tallied 10 assists. That is good for 42 points in 38 career games.

In Ireland, Kerr will play under Robert Morris first-year assistant coach Cacki Helmer, who is the head coach of the team. According to Ireland Lacrosse it is her third tournament as a member of the staff. When it comes to selecting Kerr, Helmer said that she was impressed by Kerr at the tryouts last summer.

“She stood out at tryouts right away,” said Helmer. “Before she even knew that I’d be working with her (at RMU). She was someone who proved herself as a player. It just worked out that I had the opportunity to train her all year before the tournament before we meet back up for the tournament all summer.”

Furthermore, Helmer said that it was good to have a player all year to train. She mentioned that she doesn’t get to work with most national players over the season, and it requires trust from them to be ready for the tournament.

Helmer considers the division that Ireland is in to be the toughest in the tournament as her division contains the top finishers from the last time the tournament took place in 2015. Her team, which placed fifth in the 2015 ELF European Championship when Helmer was an assistant coach, will be up against the likes of England, Wales, Scotland, Israel and Germany in the blue division according to Ireland Lacrosse’s press release.

In the press release, coach Helmer had this to say about the team, “Our 2019 European Championships team will feature several key veteran players, as well as some fresh faces to the National Team. The promise of our program’s potential rises each year, and with new players working their way onto our Senior National Team, we are reminded of the rewards of hard work and the growth of the game of lacrosse. Much of the growth of our game in Ireland is due to the passion and motivation of our senior players. It is with this drive and determination to spread lacrosse throughout Ireland that we have high hopes as a coaching staff for a successful 2019 European Championship run.”

Helmer and Kerr will be back in action for Robert Morris women’s lacrosse (5-2) this upcoming Saturday as they host the Radford Highlanders (1-6) at noon.