“Sometimes it just takes one swing of the bat to get out of a slump,” Harold Reynolds said on ESPN, discussing Barry Bonds’s recent home run drought. The same could be said about the UR women’s lacrosse team. After a heartbreaking loss to the Hamilton College Continentals, they officially ended their four-game losing streak by diffusing the Ithaca College Bombers in an 18-7 blowout. The Yellowjackets had lost five of their last six matches before Tuesday’s triumph and are now 2-4 in the Liberty League and 4-7 overall.
Every time the Yellowjackets seemed to have the game in hand against Hamilton, the Continentals were to cross the divide and put UR behind. The Yellowjackets and the Continentals shot it out in the first half as six different Yellowjackets accounted for each of UR’s six goals.
Freshman midfielder Lindsay Dakin tallied the first UR goal 3:05 into the first half to even the score at one against Hamilton. The Yellowjackets opened up their offense as freshman attacker Mary Kate Hannan and junior defender Laura Giusto followed suit with one apiece.
The red hot Yellowjackets outshot the Continentals by three and took a 6-4 advantage into the break despite committing a greater number of turnovers. Hamilton was led by junior midfielder Inga Stots who had two goals in the first half.
The Yellowjackets came out of the break swinging as they attempted to put the game out of reach for the second place Continentals as Dakin netted the first goal of the half with 25:26 left, putting UR ahead 7-4.
But the glory was short lived as the Continentals hit a spark, going on a three to nothing run over the next 3:02 to even up the score at seven. The game was in a standoff over the next four minutes before Hannan broke the tie by finding the back of the net off an assist by freshman midfielder Erica Gelb.
The Yellowjackets were able to capitalize off of Hamilton’s turnovers as Dakin got her second goal of the day less than 30 seconds later, off of a beautiful assist from junior midfielder Alanna Tievsky with 12:50 left in the game.
But Hamilton wasn’t done yet. The Continentals were able to take advantage of the free position and netted three goals over the next six minutes. Like before, the Yellowjackets responded with goals from Dakin and Giusto to give UR the lead with less than seven minutes to go. Going along with the trend of the game, the Hamilton Continentals had one more run left in them as freshman midfielder Jen McGowen scored the go ahead goal with less than three minutes left to end it.
On Tuesday, the Yellowjackets were determined to end their losing streak, with Dakin taking the game into her own hands. Dakin had a career high six goals in UR’s win over the visiting Bombers.
The Yellowjackets welcomed Ithaca with a decisive 5-0 run to open the half. The Yellowjackets ended strong in the first half, going on a 3-0 run going into the break. Once again the Yellowjackets were able to spread their offense with five different players scoring UR’s nine goals in the opening period. Ithaca freshman midfielder Becky Bedard lead the Bombers with one goal and one assist.
The second half wasn’t much better for the visiting team, as Dakin netted her fourth score of the game less than three minutes into the second half. The Bombers made their only run of the game following Dakin’s goal, finding the back of the net three times over the next five minutes, but that was quickly squashed, as the Yellowjackets were able to take advantage of the free position as they closed out the game on an 8-1 run. UR doubled the number of shots of the visiting Bombers as well as forced more turnovers.
The Yellowjackets are now in sixth place in the Liberty League as they will travel to face the eighth place Vassar College Brewers in the Liberty League on Friday and attempt to close out their year on a winning streak.
Wang can be reached at bwang@campustimes.org.
