After a rough start in a cold and rainy first half, the women’s lacrosse team was able to briefly scare the Polar Bears of Bowdoin. But then, the defense softened, and Bowdoin was able to sneak by 11-9. The loss continues a four-game losing skid and puts their playoff hopes into serious doubt.
Trouble came early when Taylor White put one past Kate Jones ’05 for an early 1-0 lead, but tri-captain Becca Vogel ’05 quickly evened the score with a goal of her own off a strong feed from Cortney Tetrault ’07. After nearly ten scoreless minutes, the Bears rattled off four scores to leave the halftime board reading 5-1 Bowdoin.
“There were some stretches in the midfield where Bowdoin had great pressure [defensively] and we weren’t able to move the ball through,” said Coach Holly Wheeler, who added she was pleased overall with her squad’s performance.
The second half looked ready to turn the game around when Vogel, Wesleyan’s all-time leading scorer, found daylight behind Bowdoin’s Kendall Cox just 61 seconds after the opening face-off and followed up with a second tally, her third of the day, less than a minute later. Tetrault closed the gap to one with her fifth lamplighter of the year, 80 seconds after Vogel’s third of the match to cap a 3-0 Cardinal run.
The Polar Bears scored again soon afterwards, running off a series of four goals to extend their edge to five, culminating in Jill Siegerwald’s tally with 15:01 to go. Vogel struck again inside the next four minutes to make it 9-5. The final six minutes of play featured a flurry of scoring, but despite a 4-2 Cardinal rush, the red and black could not score fast enough to overcome their deficit, and ultimately fell 11-9.
Vogel had another strong game in the losing effort. She tallied five goals on the day, bringing her total for the year to 43 and her career point total to 202. She wasn’t the only player, however, to beat Cox for multiple scores, as Vanessa Jones ’05 collected a pair. Kate Jones made 8 saves in a very balanced game as Bowdoin out shot the Cardinals 26-23.
“It was a tough loss because overall we played a solid game,” Vogel said. “Our team defense was great throughout the game. What is frustrating for all of us right now is that we know how much potential we have—there were times in yesterday’s game when we were virtually unstoppable, but right now we haven’t been able to play like that for a full 60 minutes.”
The Cardinals (6-6, 2-5 NESCAC) are tied for seventh in the conference with Bates and Trinity, but they currently hold the tiebreaker spot by virtue of their victory over the Bobcats. Beating Trinity at home on Tuesday would give the Cards an edge over both teams as well as a higher seeding in the conference tournament. They will close out their season Saturday with a home contest against Williams.
“I think we all know how close we are, and I also think in this upcoming week against Trinity and Williams we’ll be able to bring it hard and get the gold!” Vogel said. “After playing us, they’ll wish they had rather walked the plank!”
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