Women’s lacrosse bested by Salsibury in first game of season

By Jordan Fairchild

Elm Staff Writer

On Saturday, March 6, the Washington College women’s lacrosse team competed in their first game of the 2021 season against out-of-conference Salisbury University, who is ranked at number seven nationally in women’s division three lacrosse.

Salisbury dominated the first half of the game with a 7–0 scoring streak, but the Shorewomen answered back with two goals on back-to-back possessions. 

The first of these goals was an unassisted free position shot by junior Molly Sharp. 

The second goal was another free position shot by freshman Ashley Devlin, assisted by junior Sydney Allender. This was Devlin’s first career goal playing for WC.

After another goal for Salisbury, Allender scored a goal assisted by freshman Morgan Sutherland. 

Salisbury scored once more before junior Colleen Keefe would end the half with the last goal, making the score 9–4, Salisbury. 

Five minutes into the second half, Keefe scored her second goal, assisted by Sutherland to raise the score to 5–9, closing Salisbury’s lead to four points. 

Salisbury would score another four unanswered goals before junior Olivia Miller scored the last goal of the game, once again assisted by Sutherland. 

The final score was 13–6, Salisbury. 

“This game was a good learning experience for us, especially facing such a tough opponent right out of the gate,” senior captain Catherine Keirn said. “We plan to continue to hone in on our strengths as a team, getting better every day.” 

“We have been working on really getting to know each other and our strengths during practice which started to show towards the end of the game.” Devlin said. 

Freshman Abby Laubach, Devlin, and Sutherland all started in the game, making their debut appearances as collegiate athletes.

Sutherland ended the game with a team-high of three assists. Keefe ended the game with a team-high of two goals. Sophomore goalie Sydney Wingate ended the game with 5 saves. 

Of the 21 draw controls during the game, the Shorewomen came away with 12. Laubach contributed 4 draw controls. 

WC senior captain Anna Bennett also contributed 4 draw controls during the game, placing her at #7 in WC history with a total of 120. 

“The most challenging part of the game was definitely just getting into our groove after not playing for a year and the setbacks that came with that,” Keirn said.

The Shorewomen will go on to face out-of-conference opponent Rowan at home on Wednesday, March 10, at 4 p.m. 

The Shorewomen’s 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19 after their 13–3 victory over Rowan. 

“Rowan was the last team we played last year and we really crushed them,” Bennett said. “Going into this week we have to stay grounded and not think that our big win last year will automatically be the same, we have to be prepared for anything.” 

Featured Photo of senior captain Anna Bennett. Photo by Mark Cooley.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *