Last week’s incessant rain failed to put a damper on the women’s lacrosse team as they defeated Conn. College 15-6 Wednesday but lost a tough one to Bowdoin 12-10 in overtime playing Conn. College on the astro-turf pitch at Trinity, the Cards flew out of the gate. Within three minutes of the game’s start, Becky Meredith ’06 scored the first of eight team goals in the first half. Becca Vogel ’05, Wesleyan’s second all-time leading scorer, had two more goals in the first 30 minutes. Martina McPherson ’04, who scored her hundredth career point in the game, also had two scores in the half. Courtney Tetrault ’07 capped off the scoring in the final minute.
The second half showed no end to the Red and Black tide. Meredith netted her second goal 4:41 in. Vogel added one, as did McPherson.
But the second half became the Becky Meredith Show. In the final 11:13, she scored four goals, giving her five of the team’s seven in the half. Freshman midfielder Lauren Ogden ’07 had another fine game, scoring a goal and adding four assists. Kate Jones ’06 made eleven saves between the pipes.
The Conn. College game was the first in which the Card’s opponent had more free position shots than Wes.
Despite the resounding win, McPherson was not particularly pleased with the quality of play.
“The torrential rain was a factor (in the game), creating a lot of sloppy play (dropped passes, ground balls), but we adjusted well,” McPherson said.
“Our transitions were sharp,” said captain Bernadette Doykos ’04. “We got amazing production from (McPherson), who has hit her midseason stride.”
Rain fell a little more softly when the Birds faced eighteenth-ranked Bowdoin (6-1) back in Middletown on Saturday, but the game had a much closer finish.
The first half was all Cardinals on a sloppy field where players slid all over the place. Goals came in bunches. After the Polar Bears struck first with 24:13 left in the half, Vanessa Jones ’05 scored on a free position shot 1:05 later. Then McPherson spun left around the Bowdoin goalie and beat her low to take a 2-1 lead 50 seconds later. Only 27 seconds elapsed before Meredith scored again, the Cards’ third goal in under 3 minutes. The Bears scored underneath Kate Jones after another 27 ticks. During a scuffle in front of the Bowdoin net, Laura Siegle ’06 somehow pushed the ball through with 17:20 remaining. Again in front of the goal, Vogel had the ball on the right side when she fell down, losing the ball on the ground. No one had picked it up when she got up, so she got it and passed it to McPherson for her second score exactly ten minutes after Siegle. Meredith netted her second goal 20 seconds later, and Siegle ended the first half scoring spree with 22 seconds left in the half, with the score 7-3 in favor of the Cards.
“We had a great deal of momentum going into the second half,” McPherson said.
It seemed that the momentum would last as McPherson scored her third goal 17 seconds after the second half’s commencement. Bowdoin scored the next two goals, and then Emily Pfeiffer ’05, the Middletown Press’s Player of the Week, scored. Those three goals came in a span of 1:41. The bursts of scoring continued for the Polar Bears as they scored another three over the next seven minutes. Vogel scored just before the 20 minute mark, and then Bowdoin scored twice more to tie the contest.
“Pfeiffer made a key recovery of a ground ball near the end of (regulation) when we needed to get downfield,” said coach Holly Wheeler. “Unfortunately, we failed to make a goal out of it.”
Bowdoin scored twice in the overtime session to escape with a victory.
Kate Jones made nine saves before being removed from the game with 21:21 remaining. Her replacement, Meriel Darzen ’04, totaled three stops.
“Kate’s been great, making a lot of saves,” Wheeler said. “We’re working with her to improve her consistency in the second half, but she’s taken huge strides since last season.”
“The first 40 minutes were the best 40 we’ve played all season. Unfortunately, we let up for the middle of the second half, stopped executing our attack, and suffered the loss as a result,” Doykos said. “It doesn’t get too much more difficult than that loss.”
“The game was ours to take, and we let it slip away,” McPherson said.
The next game for the Cardinals is an out-of-conference contest Tuesday, April 6 at 4:30 p.m. against Smith College.
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