Every road in life has its ups and downs, especially in the sports world, and it seems as though the women’s lacrosse team has hit a low point right off the start of this year.
The team kicked off its season by losing to the Duquesne University Dukes and the Duke University Blue Devils.
They dropped the first game 12-10 to Duquesne, only to be followed up by a 21-6 blowout loss at the hands of the home Blue Devils.
Head Coach Cathy Reese summed up the season so far with one word, “challenging.”
“It’s hard to make an 0-2 start sound good,” Reese said, “but a lot of people have been stepping up in practice and we’re really excited to come out and show the type of team we can be.”
This is only the second season that the women will be included in the newly created Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Conference.
This conference includes St. Mary’s University, Stanford University, University of California Davis, University of California Berkeley, and the first-year program of the University of Oregon.
Prior to the creation of this conference, the women played as an independent team.
The women entered into the season unranked and last season their record was 7-12 (2-2 division).
“It continues to be our main goal to take one game at a time and try to be the best team we can be every game,” said Reese.
She added, “I think our conference is very competitive, but if we play our game, we have a great shot at winning the conference championship and bringing ourselves into the top 20 ranking.”
The Pioneers did finally make their first strides at success though, first beating conference foe University of Oregon Ducks this past Friday.
The team defeated the Ducks 17-12 as Megan Carver added seven points and Crystal Jack notched six points.
Carver’s came in the form of six goals and one assist while Jack scored five goals.
The Ducks held an 8-5 lead at halftime, but the Pioneers came together in the second half to put the game away.
A late 7-0 lead made sure that three late goals by the Ducks would not be enough.
Goalkeeper Steph Schneider was impressive as she made ten saves off 31 shots that were put on goal.
But then the team followed their first victory of the season with a loss to the Northwestern University Wildcats on Sunday.
Jack put in three goals for the Pioneers, but the No. 3 Wildcats dealt DU a 20-9 defeat.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead, but Kate Broderick tied the game immediately after.
But the Wildcats scored the next seven goals before the Pioneers could strike again. Carver had two goals and two assists, but the Wildcats outscored DU 8-5 in the second half.
Northwestern’s Laura Glassanos had a match high six points with five goals and one assist.
After this past weekends games, the team’s record sits at 1-3 overall (1-0 division).
Next up for the women’s team is their first game in the newly built Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium versus MPSF rival University of California-Berkeley on Saturday, March 3 at 4 p.m.
