Women’s lacrosse headed into Williamstown, Mass., riding a wave of momentum following a 17-2 annihilation of Smith College. But ever more fresh on the minds of the Cardinals was last year’s 14-8 loss to the Williams College Ephs, a game in which the Cardinals let a 6-4 lead in the first half slip away. The Birds wanted revenge for the loss, but unfortunately, the Ephs scored nine first half goals en route to 14-9 victory. The Cardinals dropped to 7-3 overall (2-3 NESCAC).
Becky Meredith ’06 gave the Cards an early lead when she scored her 22nd goal of the season, but the Purple Cows countered quickly. Scoring twice over the next five minutes, they went up to take a 2-1 lead. Wesleyan tied the game when Bernadette Doykos ’04 found the net with 22:05 to go in the half, and Emily Pfeiffer ’05 scored less than a minute later to give the Birds the 3-2 lead. After Williams countered at 19:26, Becca Vogel ’05 struck back for her 24th goal and the lead with 14:43 left in the half. However, the Ephs flustered Kate Jones ’06 with six goals through the remainder of the half, punctuated by Wendy Stone’s goal with one second remaining. Jones made two saves in the half, but she was replaced by Meriel Darzen ’04.
“Williams has an excellent attack,” said head coach Holly Wheeler. “We had trouble containing it in the first half. ”We had poor execution in the first half, but we improved in the second half.“
The second half saw the Ephs still connecting with the goal as Kaylan Tildsley scored her third goal of the game with 26:42 to go, but Meredith held the margin at five when she beat Williams goalie Meghan Dwyer twelve seconds later. The Cards failed to score for another 6:34, while the Ephs put one past Darzen. At 19:56, Laura Siegle ’06 scored her eleventh on a free position shot to make the score 11-6. The Ephs continued the onslaught of points, but the Cardinals could not respond.
Though dropping to Little Three and NESCAC rival Williams was a tough loss for the Cardinals, there were still some bright spots for the team. Katharine Needham ’05 scored her first career goal during the contest.
”[Needham] finally got one stat to add to the record books, one shot, one save, as she denied a Williams player from scoring on an empty net with a knockdown,“ Doykos said.
Of note is Vogel’s chase of Deb Saudek ’92, the Cards’ all-time leading scorer with 138 points. Vogel, only a junior, sits just 10 behind with just four games remaining, the next of which is at home against Tufts.
Wheeler considers this Wednesday’s game to be critical for the remainder of this season’s prognosis.
”[The Jumbos are] very feisty, quick, strong, talented, and tough,“ she said. ”This will be a very even game, a very good test for the post-season.“
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