The women’s lacrosse team braved the cold this weekend, even playing in the snow and, as a result, they came away with a continued even record in the Liberty League. The team traveled to Skidmore College on Friday to take on the Thoroughbreds in the snow and gain the victory, 10-3. The ‘Jackets then took a trip just down the road to challenge the Dutchwomen of Union College.
Unfortunately, the results weren’t as favorable on Saturday, and Union pulled away from a close game to win, 9-4.
On Friday, the first goal of the game came from Skidmore less than two minutes into the game, at 28:36. However, UR responded with a 5-0 run with goals contributed from five different players to give them the lead, 5-1.
Senior attacker Heidi Davies started the ball rolling with an unassisted shot at 27:21.
Sophomore midfielder Lindsay Dakin followed five minutes later with a free position shot, then, within the minute, she assisted sophomore attacker Mary Kate Hannan with a third goal in six minutes. The next two came from senior defenseman Laura Giusto and senior attacker Christina Montano – Giusto’s unassisted and Montano’s with an assist from sophomore midfielder Abby Woodward.
The Thoroughbreds finally responded with 3:23 left in the half, but their one goal would not be tolerated, as the Yellowjackets took two more before the half was over, one from Montano at 2:32 with an assist from sophomore midfielder Erica Gelb and a free position shot by Hannan for her second of the day, making the score 7-2 at halftime.
Skidmore came back into the game with an attempt at evening the score, as they took the first goal of the second half. However, they were unable to grab any more, and UR took three more before the game ended. Davies nabbed her second unassisted of the day and Woodward netted two in the last four minutes of the day, one unassisted and one free position, ending the game with a score of 10-3.
On the defensive end, the ‘Jackets collected 26 ground balls in comparison to Skidmore’s 24. They also caused eight turnovers during the game. Five of the ground balls and two of the turnovers came from sophomore defender Marlena Fisher. In addition to contributing three points, Woodward caused three of the turnovers and took four ground balls. Sophomore goalie Leslie Dube was in the net for the entire game and scooped four ground balls and made eight saves. In shots, UR nearly doubled Skidmore’s 16 with 30 shots on goal.
While the Yellowjackets started Saturday’s game competitively, they were unable to keep up throughout the afternoon. Goals went back and forth for the first 20 minutes, but the Dutchwomen then took control, scoring two before the end of the first half and four more in the second before UR was able to respond.
The first goal of the game came unassisted from freshman midfielder Danielle Mondro at 25:38. However, Union evened the score 47 seconds later. UR once again took the lead with an unassisted goal from Dakin at 20:41. This time, it took the Dutchwomen a little over seven minutes to respond, but they were able to once again even the score.
The ‘Jackets wouldn’t give up, though, and they came back with a free position shot from junior defenseman Mimi Hong at 10:23. This was UR’s last lead of the game, as Union came back with two more to make the score 4-3 at the end of the half with two goals coming from Union’s Stephanie Cronan within one minute of each other.
It wasn’t until over 15 minutes into the second half that the Yellowjackets were able to score again. Davies scored UR’s final goal of the game at 14:33 with an assist from Gelb. In the meantime, Union had scored four in the first part of the second half, and they responded to Davies’s score with a final netting at 0:47 to make one final jab at the team, ending the game with a score of 9-4.
Sophomore defender Megan Jenkins attributed part of the loss to Union’s tough demeanor.
“They were really aggressive and rough, which made it difficult at times, since our team doesn’t really play dirty, it was tough to continue to play clean when they were taking cheap shots,” she said.
Defensively, Dube made 13 saves and had three ground balls. Giusto also scooped four ground balls, herself. Jenkins and Hannan brought on two turnovers apiece.
Fisher had two ground balls and caused two turnovers, totaling four turnovers and seven ground balls for the weekend. This impressive performance earned her the title of Liberty League Co-Defensive Performer of the Week.
The team is looking forward to much improvement for the remainder of the season and has been working on changing some of their habits.
“The team has been working well together, every game we seem to do better on the things that weren’t our strong points in previous games,” Jenkins said. “Our attack has been clicking well and our defense is really playing well together. Our transition,which we have been working on a lot, is definitely getting better.”
The ‘Jackets are now 2-2 in the league and 2-5 overall. On Friday they will be traveling to William Smith College at 4 p.m. They then host Hamilton College on Tuesday at 4 p.m. for continued league play.
Philbrick is a member of the class of 2009.
