Women's lax takes three more, now 8-3

For those of you rightfully enthralled with the women's lacrosse team, another three notches can be carved in towards the Yeowomen's march to the North Coast Athletic Conference championships. This week the unstoppable rockables took Ohio Wesleyan University out of the conference's number one spot with a 10-7 win, destroyed and shut-out Allegheny College 17-0, and thoroughly shellacked Kenyon College 12-4.

Going into the OWU game there was some concern about the team's speed and about one Jenny Feldman, who leads the conference in scoring. With good defense and execution the team managed to basically shut down Feldman and take the game. "We marked her out," senior Nicole Miller said, "She only scored once."

The Yeowomen played a strong consistent game, finding open players when double and triple-teamed, and making good passes. "We were really on with our passing and catching," Miller said. "We were composed and patient. Maintaining possession was our main goal. They were very aggressive and would double and triple-team all over the place. We had to keep our play-level high, they're the same type of team as Ithaca or Rochester."

Miller was a little sympathetic with the OWU team. "They play really scrappy and their coach is really negative," she said. "That shows in the players. When they got down they started getting down on themselves. They had five yellow cards."

At half-time the Yeowomen were down 6-4 when junior Katherine Roberts stepped it up, scoring three crucial goals to bring the score to 7-6. This triggered an overall momentum boost, that saw Oberlin scoring three goals to OWU's one for the game. "We were losing, but we stepped it up and came out on top," junior Alysia Oakley said.

The following day, Oberlin played at home and was still playing at OWU's level against a pity-hungry Allegheny. "We played our game," Miller said. "It was a really pretty game to watch, Alysia had an amazing game. They're a good team to play though, they have a lot of heart and you never know if they're going to come back or not."

Goalkeeper Oakley did have a great game, with nine saves and none allowed. "My defensive help was great, I couldn't ask for anything more," she said. "I just love them." This was the first time Allegheny was shut-out all season. Both senior Bepi Barry and sophomore Kim Allen had four goals.

Wednesday's trouncing of Kenyon was not quite as pretty a game, though in the end it didn't matter. "It was a little tough, we were just tired and stressed," Oakley said. "It wasn't the most pleasant game to play."

Miller agreed, saying, "During the first half we were just off on passing, but we knew we were going to have a good game so we pulled it together for the second half. Allen had another four goals to tie with Barry for eight that week. Barry is the second scoring leader in the conference, and Oakley is the second goalie leader.

This weekend the team plays Wittenberg University at home on Saturday, and Earlham College at home on Sunday. Earlham is last in the conference standings and Wittenberg just kicked one of their key players off the team. Thursday the team travels to Denison University to try and punish the Big Red for keeping the Yeowomen out of the championships last year.

"We really have to step up to play Denison and not play down to the level of Wittenberg and Earlham," Miller said.