By Gabby Tarbert
Elm Staff Writer
It was a crisp Saturday afternoon when the women’s lacrosse took the field. Having just watched the men’s team defeat the number eight ranked team in the nation, the girls were fired up and ready to make some history of their own, facing visiting Rowan Profs.
The past two years the team took on the Profs the game was decided by one goal. Senior attacker Corinne Ziccardi scored the game winners for the Shorewomen in 2012 and 2011. No such heroics would be needed this time, as the Shorewomen handled the Profs with ease in a decisive 17-6 win.
The game started out evenly matched, with the team trailing Rowan 3-2 before scoring the final six goals of the first half to take an 8-3 lead.
Ziccardi scored three of those goals, sophomore attacker Emily Hubely had two, and junior Carly Eisenbrandt had one. The Shorewomen continued their scoring streak after intermission, scoring another six consecutive goals, to bring their unanswered goal count to 12 for the day.
That twelfth goal came off the stick of freshman Carley Kendall, scoring her first collegiate goal in fine fashion, with an assist from senior captain Mollie Shipley.
Rowan rallied for two goals after the incredible scoring barrage from the Shorewomen, but failed to muster up any sort of comeback against the dominant home team. Liz Godorov, Laura Nicely and Kathleen Maleski rounded out the scoring for the afternoon, with Nicely and Maleski netting their first goals of the year. Goalie Stephanie Seibert played the first 51 minutes of the game, making four saves before being relieved by Rachelle Martinez, who played a strong final few minutes, making three saves to rack up the win.
A few highlights from the Shorewomen’s 17-6 routing of visiting Rowan deserve some special recognition. Senior captain Shipley was breaking all sorts of records on Saturday. She tied the single game school record for assists in a game with seven. Shipley now shares a place in the record books with Tammy Tiehel, who set the record in 1983. That’s a record that no one has managed to surpass for 30 years.
Shipley didn’t stop there. Her assist on the 17th and final goal of the contest to Maleski gave Shipley her 100th career point. Shipley became just the 21st Shorewoman in history to reach that milestone. Shipley joins fellow senior captain Ziccardi on that list of all-time honorees.
Hubely is good all over the field, with the speed that opposing teams cannot quite seem to contain. In fact, Hubely’s performance earned her Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week honor, something that is not easy to do in the highly competitive conference.
Hubely broke the single game school record with her 11 draw controls on Saturday, as well as adding a pair of goals and assists. Her 11 draw controls broke the school record previously held by Mandy Pare (10), a record she set in 1998. Here’s something else worth noting: Pare was a dual sport athlete at WC, competing in field hockey and lacrosse, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame this past fall. Hubely is a dual sport athlete herself, competing in basketball and lacrosse. Hubely also tied the Conference record with her 11 draw controls.
The Shorewomen have come up big in their first two games of the season, and lead the conference in many statistical categories: Ziccardi leads in goals (eight) and points (14), Shipley with assists (nine), and Seibert in saves (15).
The team is off to a hot start, and looks to continue their success as they take on St. Mary’s in Chestertown on Tuesday at 4 p.m.