Women’s Lacrosse Struggles to Sustain Momentum
By Carlyn Robertson '14, Managing Sports Editor
The women’s lacrosse team (4-3 overall, 1-3 NESCAC) has alternated wins and losses in the past two weeks. The Jeffs have struggled to gain traction this season, and now sit in the bottom half of the NESCAC standings.

The Jeffs earned a 9-7 overtime victory over Connecticut College — a team still winless in league play — on March 23. It was a close match, as the score was tied on six occasions over the course of the game. The teams went into the half tied 4-4, and both the Camels and the Jeffs added a pair of goals to push the score to 6-6 soon into the second half. Conn. College pulled ahead to 6-7, but Allie Horwitz ’11 scored an equalizer just 45 seconds later for a 7-7 tie at the end of regulation play. Marta Randall ’13 scored 18 seconds into overtime to gain the edge, and Horwitz sealed the deal with a final goal. Horwitz finished with a hat trick, and Randall had two goals and an assist. Natalie Dugan ’13, Elizabeth Ludlow ’14, Alex Philie ’14 and Annelies O’Dea ’14 each put up a goal for the Jeffs.

The team dropped its next match to Bowdoin 8-9 on Mar. 26. The Polar Bears took a quick 2-0 lead, and first year goalie MC McClellan made two saves to keep it close. O’Dea assisted classmate Philie to put the Jeffs on the board, and Hillary Densen ’13 tied it up 2-2. Bowdoin scored three more goals, and McClellan had a great save just before the half to keep the Polar Bears from pulling farther away.

The Jeffs came back with a vengeance and scored the first five goals of the second half. They kept possession of the ball on Bowdoin’s end of the field for eight minutes. Randal and Ludlow scored a goal apiece to put the Jeffs just a goal behind. Randall scored three unanswered goals in eleven minutes to put the Jeffs up 7-5. The Polar Bears responded with four goals of their own, regaining the lead 9-7. Senior co-captain Kelley Trapp put the Jeffs back within a goal with 39 seconds to play, but Bowdoin held them off and ran the clock out. McClellan had five saves in the loss.

The Jeffs came back with a 6-4 win over Springfield on March 29. They had a rough start as Springfield went up 3-0, but picked up the pace and came back strong with six unanswered goals and held the Pride scoreless for 41 minutes, 23 seconds. Trapp kicked off the six-goal run and Randall followed up with a shot to the top corner. Julia Viani ’12 found Meredith LaRose ’12 in front of a busy net, and LaRose put away a hard shot. Trapp got a pass off to Randall to take the lead 4-3 at the half. Viani had two more assists in the second half, sending another great pass to LaRose and connecting with Hillary Densen ’13 to push the Jeffs lead to 6-3. Springfield scored their final goal with eight minutes to go, but the Jeffs’ defense fended them off for the remainder of the game for the 6-4 win. Goalie Lamia Harick ’12 had four saves in the match.

Bates beat the Jeffs 12-7 on April 2. The Bobcats adapted to Randall’s offensive dominance and managed to hold her scoreless for 51 minutes. The Jeffs continued in their trend of starting off slow as Bates took a 4-0 lead. Densen put the Jeffs on the board for a 4-1 score heading in to the half. Bates returned strong to put themselves up 6-1 before the Jeffs responded with a 4-0 run with goals from Natalie Dugan ’13, Philie, Caroline Holliday ’14. Randall’s first goal of the game put the Jeffs within a goal of Bates. LaRose assisted Trapp with 4:10 left to play in response to a pair of goals by Bates, and Randall put away her second goal of the game to put the score at 8-7. The Bobcats rallied for a strong finish and put away four goals on four shots in the final minutes, putting the game far out reach at 12-7. With that loss, the Jeffs sit at a 4-3 overall record with a 1-3 record in NESCAC play. Their next match is at Wheaton College on Thursday, April 7.

Issue 21, Submitted 2011-04-09 01:19:02