Katie Latonick has played lacrosse side-by-side with her twin sister for seven years, but this year she was on her own. After red-shirting her freshman year, Katie Latonick came back this season without her sister, Meghan, as a graduate student on the Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse team. After toying with just graduating and not playing her fourth eligible season, but then “a lot of convincing from (head coach) Danie (Caro)” Latonick decided to come back, which seems to have been the right choice.

After a year of ineligibility her freshman year, in which she could only practice with the team, the 2009-10 season is Latonick’s fifth season with the Bobcats.

Latonick is a native of Severna Park, Md. She received a Catholic college-preparatory education at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Md. There, she played field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse.

“Meghan and I started playing lacrosse when we were 13,” Latonick said. “In Maryland, lacrosse is everything.”

Both sisters were recruited to come to Quinnipiac their senior year of high school.

“We knew we wanted to go to school together,” Latonick said.

At Quinnipiac, Latonick completed her undergraduate degree in communications and is working toward a masters degree in Interactive Communications.

“I love talking to people, I love communicating with people,” Latonick said.

She did an internship with the Chesapeake Bayhawks the summer after her junior year in Annapolis, Md., doing public relations work for the team such as feature writing and compiling statistics.

Latonick has compiled some stats of her own as captain of the Bobcats, leading the Bobcats with 62 points (22 goals and 40 assists). She also leads the Northeast Conference with 5.13 points per game and 3.38 assists per game. She also ranks first in assists (2.77 apg) and second in scoring (4.38 ppg).

“We had some go-to people last year,” Latonick said. “This year a few of us had to put points on the board every game.”

She registered 53 points, nine goals and 44 assists as a junior in 2009 when she established her role as a feeder.

“Teams in our conference know that I feed, so they play me as a feeder,” Latonick said. “It’s easier now for me to go to the goal because they think I’m going to pass it.”

With seven seniors graduated, Latonick has had to relish new roles on the team as a graduate student.

“Danie said I needed to be someone that my team loved but feared,” Latonick said.

“We asked her to do a little more in actual scoring herself,” Caro said. “She always had that ability within her but she was able to hide in the past. We have had other really strong players so we didn’t need her to be our leader on offense.”

Latonick’s position has changed this season from attack to midfield. She has played center for the team and takes the faceoffs.

“We moved her onto the circle for the draw,” Caro said. “We needed her to do that.”

Latonick has taken on new roles as a leader on the team this year but has not been able to share her roles with her sister.

“This is the first time we’ve been completely apart,” Latonick said. “We’ve always played together. I’ve always had someone there.”

In field hockey during high school, they both played on the same line.

“Our coach really thought we could read each other’s minds,” Latonick said.

The twin sisters competed against each other in practice at Quinnipiac.

“They’re really close and they support each other,” Caro said.

The sisters have always played lacrosse together but this year Latonick has proved she can perform without her sister on the field.

“This year she’s changed her game and become a more dominating player,” Caro said. “Having that fifth year gave her a leg up on getting to that point.”