By Christian Yosef
Elm Staff Writer
With the Shorewomen improving to 8-2 on the season and 3-0 in conference play on April 4 with their win at Ursinus, the women’s lacrosse team is one step closer to making conference playoffs for their eighth year in a row.
The win marks the first time in 15 years that the Shorewomen have been 3-0 to start off conference play. In 2003, WC used a 5-0 start en route to a 7-2 record.
“I think that part of our team’s success can be credited to that fact that we are all so close on and off the field,” said sophomore Aubrey Robinson. “Even though we are together so much in season because of games and practice, we still all find time to hangout or study together away from the field. I also think that being a small team has benefited us because everyone gets a lot of reps in practice and is important to the team.”
The game started off quickly for WC, as junior Cecily Docktor scored only 16 seconds into the game. Thirty-four seconds later, sophomore Lauren Brenner made it 2-0 with a goal of her own. Ursinus got onto the board 1:25 into the game, but junior Kristy Grovom answered back at 3:23 to make the score 3-1.
At 16:57 left in the first half, Ursinus tied the game up, 3-3. Only a minute later, Docktor gave WC the lead it would have for the rest of the game. She then pushed that lead to 5-3 with 11:59 left.
The Bears trimmed the lead to 5-4 with 8:28 left, but freshman Anna Bennett got the goal back 60 ticks later.
Within 39 seconds, WC scored twice, with Grovom scoring at the 2:46 mark, and junior Emily Pantazes finding the back of the goal at 2:07.
Going into the second, the Shorewomen lead 8-4.
“The best part about beating Ursinus was how well we played despite the conditions,” Bennett said. “It was freezing and windy that night, but no one was fazed. Last year the team had a hard game against Ursinus and it was great to come out with the win this year, despite the weather.”
The Bears opened up the second with a goal at 5:06 into the half to cut it to only a three-goal lead, and then with 23:00 left they found the back of the goal to make it 8-6.
At 20:50, Robinson passed it to Docktor who shot and made it to make it 9-6, and then with 16:17 Docktor passed it to Robinson to make it 10-6.
With the lead trimmed at 15:09, WC scored twice within a 71-second span from Brenner and junior Alison Pantazes with 12:47 left.
In the final minutes, the Bears were able to score twice, once with 6:11 left and another with 2:50 left to make it 12-9, but Robinson shot and scored with 2:07 left to set the final score to 13-9.
“We were very excited to play Muhlenberg, honestly,” freshman Meghan Dean said. “Going into Muhlenberg we treated them like the number one team, because we knew if we assumed anything less, they would take advantage of us.”
The Shorewomen play their next game on Saturday, April 14 against conference opponent Bryn Mawr. The game will start at 1 p.m. at home on Kibler Field.