Women's lacrosse annihilate Wooster 20-5

Stiff out-of-region competition for the women's lacrosse team this past weekend helped lead to an almost easy trouncing of the College of Wooster on Wednesday. The Yeowomen lost 13-9 against sixth-ranked (in the nation) Ithaca College on Saturday and beat powerhouse University of Rochester 13-7 on Sunday. These challenging games made the 20-5 conference win over Wooster look routine.

The first -half of the Ithaca could have been one of the best ever this season. "We played a composed game during the first-half," Coach Mindy Manolovich said. "We held possession for the first seven minutes in our attack position. Their coach came up to me afterwards and said they've never had a team hold possession for that long." The team went into the half up 5-4.

In the second half the Yeowomen couldn't take possession of the draw after an adjustment made by the Ithaca coach. A couple of these turned into quick transitional goals and soon Ithaca had six unanswered goals to lead 10-5. "We started to break down a bit," Manolovich said. "When we were down 10-5, our captains showed tremendous leadership, we gathered together, made some adjustments, and soon brought the score up to 11-9." This was due in part to five goals thrown in by senior Bepi Barry.

At this point there were about two minutes left on the clock. "We needed to not panic and slow down the pace," Manolovich said. "We were pressured by the clock, weren't able to execute as well, weren't able to adjust enough and so weren't able to get the win."

Manolovich credits Ithaca's speed as their principle advantage. "They were faster, and though faster doesn't always mean you'll win, they were able to capitalize on our weakness," she said.

Still, the coach thinks that the game was a valuable experience. "It says a lot that we were able to come back and we learned a lot," she said. "We found momentum but we needed to keep carrying it. Against a sixth-ranked team you can't have a lull. We had a competitive game, but the lull lost the game."

The team had no lull against Rochester the next day. "We played a consistent game, some people really stepped up and we took lots of possession opportunities," Manolovich said. One person Manolovich noticed was junior Katherine Roberts. "Roberts stepped up to help slow down the pace of the game and focus on possessions as a priority," she said.

Another was goalie sophomore Alysia Oakley. "Alysia had one of the most beautiful games I've seen in a while," Manolovich said. "It was her first time on turf, and usually that gives the other team a big advantage."

Sophomore Kim Allen drilled five goals and this, combined with eight other goals in two other games was enough to name her North Coast Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week.

Manolovich gave a few other reasons for the team's success on Sunday. "We capitalized on one-versus-one opportunities and looked for the open cutter after influencing their defender," she said. "If we adhere to ways we've been successful then we win."

Wednesday's game was a breeze for the Yeowomen. "We scored in the first minute," senior Jessica Resnik said. "We dominated the game, worked our plays, stayed calm and collected and basically frustrated the hell out of them."

Manolovich said, "It was a wonderful transition game. 70 percent of our goals came off of assists. We challenged the one-versus-one, did not drop off defensively, looked for the open player when double-teamed. The team adjusted on its own, and it says great things about a team when it can do that. We practiced things we needed to practice. It was really pretty to watch."

The coach was especially pleased with senior Kaelyn Stiles's efforts. Stiles was assigned the task of shutting down Wooster's Kate Messer, the number two scoring leader in the conference, and managed to deny her from scoring once. "She took on a selfless role," Manolovich said. "She took herself out of the game because she had the strength to do her job and made smart decisions."

Stiles said, "I just had to mark her very tightly and make sure she didn't get the ball. It was easier than the game I normally play because I only had one goal."

Stiles cited Bepi Barry as a key player who stepped-up against Wooster. "Bepi stepped up as center because [senior] Kate Williams hurt her foot. She controlled a lot of the draws." Barry controlled eight draws to go with her eight goals.

Stiles attributed some of the team's ability to play at a much higher level to last weekend's games. "We were used to higher level of play so we stepped it up. We even got all of our subs in."

Manolovich is very pleased with her team's progress this far. "We've peaked in taking what we learned from practice and learning from the mistakes we make in games," she said. "The weekend games were the exact preparation needed for our game on Saturday."

Saturday the Yeowomen play away against Ohio Wesleyan University, the only other team without a conference loss. Last year the team lost their first game against OWU, won the second in overtime, and the third in triple-overtime. "We're at a little bit of a disadvantage because we're on their home turf," Manolovich said. "We want lots of support. It's expected that the winner of this game will win the championship."

We're pretty excited and confident," Resnik said. "OWU is a fast team and rumor has it they will really pressure the ball with double and triple-teams. We'll need to get quick passes off, keep running to tire them out, keep possessions for a long time, slow the game down, and set up our plays. It'll be a good game, too bad it's away."

Sunday the team plays Allegheny University at home.

Scrambled Dregs: The College of Wooster was feeling pretty out of it during a vicious beating in both the first and second halves. The scoring by halves: 8-2 and 12-3. Senior Kaelyn Stiles kept Wooster's leading scorer unfulfilled. They're not just the taco, they're the whole enchilad-o. (photo by Marian Maloney)