The women’s lacrosse team broke another record on Tuesday. Now standing at 9-4 (4-4, NESCAC), Becca Vogel ’05 became Wesleyan’s all-time leading scorer, while breaking her own mark for points in a season in the Cardinals’ 14-10 victory over Trinity. The win was only the second in 29 contests against the Bantams (5-7, 3-5 NESCAC) and the first since 1980. Last season the Birds fell 16-14 in a hotly contested overtime match.
“We really won the damn game last year, but the refs said the [winning] goal was after the buzzer. This year we were NOT about to let the game even be that close,” said defender Emily Pfeiffer ’05.
The first half cranked out both offense and defense. Trinity scored first 2:33 into the game when Beatrice Gratry beat Meriel Darzen ’04, but Vogel tied it up at one with 21:26 remaining. Though the Bantams again took the lead on another Gratry goal 4:18 later, Vogel tied Debbie Saudek’s ’92 record of 138 points on her second goal of the game.
After Trinity scored shortly afterwards, Bernadette Doykos ’04 netted a pair of goals past Alexandra Benjamin in a fifteen second span, giving the Cards their first lead of the game. Becky Meredith ’06 padded the cushion to two with 8:39 left in the half, and Doykos lit the lamp for the third time less than a minute later. Ellen Werble ’07 capped off the Cardinal first half scoring, assisted by Vogel, which was her 139 career point, breaking Saudek’s record. Trinity scored twice off the stick of Tracy Nesbit in the final two minutes of the half to cut the halftime lead to 7-5.
“It’s a nice feeling to get the record, but at the same time it’s also nice to get it out of the way.” Vogel said.
Vogel finished the game with 146 career points (116 goals, 25 assists). She has 38 scores this year, four behind the season record held by Margaret Metz ’99.
In the second half, the Red and Black scoring machine continued to roll. Doykos beat the Bantams’ netminder a mere 35 seconds in, but Trinity’s Betsy Walsh did the same to Darzen, who started for the third straight contest. Shortly after Kate McNerney entered the game in goal for the Bantams, Vogel beat her for her third goal of the contest. Sixteen ticks later, Meredith caught a slick pass from Vogel and slung the ball past a startled McNerney. Over the next minute, the Bantams scored twice thanks to Courtney Collins and Gratry to pull within 10-8. That was as close as Trinity would get.
Vogel scored two straight goals, the second of which broke her own single-season record for points in a season. Cortney Tetrault ’07 assisted on the record-breaking goal. Gratry countered with her fourth score of the game at 14:37, but Vogel scored her sixth and final goal of the game for an eight-point effort with 11:16 remaining to bring the lead to 13-9. Trinity’s Christine Ryan beat Darzen, who made eleven saves, minutes later, but Laura Siegle ’06 put the exclamation point on the contest to cap off the scoring.
“All of us were fired up and we came to win and knew we were going to win,” Pfeiffer said. “I thought everyone on the team had a good game, particularly Bernadette Doykos on attack and Jen Bianculli [’07] on defense. We brought it to them all over the field, and our attack was especially on point.”
The Cards played well and put in a strong effort. With a team record nine wins, a birth in the NESCAC tournament for the second season in a row is assured. The team has one game remaining, Saturday, on the road against Colby (6-7), fresh off a 21-6 annihilation of Southern Maine. A win for the Cardinals gives them a chance of a home game when the tournament begins Sunday.
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