After falling to Boston University last Tuesday, the women's lacrosse team got back on track with a win Saturday against Columbia, defeating the Lions 14-6 at the Berylson Family Fields. Goals from eight different Brown players led the team to victory in its first Ivy League match of the season.
Lindsay Minges '13 and Alexa Caldwell '11 got the Bears (2-1, 1-0 Ivy League) off to a good start, each scoring within the first three minutes of play to put Brown up 2-0. The Lions clawed back with a goal two minutes later, but a four-goal streak from four different Brown players — including Erin Roos '14, whose tally was the first of her Brown career — pushed Bruno's lead to 6-1.
Columbia's Olivia Mann broke the Brown scoring streak 12 minutes in, cutting Bruno's lead to four. Kaela McGilloway '12, who leads the team in scoring with 14 goals this season, responded with her second goal just a minute later and added a third with nine minutes to play in the half to push Brown's lead to 8-2. The half ended with a flurry of scoring, with Columbia striking at the 27-minute mark and Bruno adding two more from Julia Keller '12 and Nancy Baker '12 to bring the score to 10-3 going into the halftime pause.
The Bears again added to their lead six minutes into the second half. Minges and Caldwell scored within 20 seconds of each other, and a goal from Bre Hudgins '14 a minute later extended the Brown lead to a commanding 13-3. Mann again scored for Columbia with 20 minutes to go in the game, proving herself to be the Lions' main source of offense in the match. Hudgins added her second three minutes later. Two late goals from the Lions were not enough to mount a comeback, and Brown came away with the 14-6 victory.
"We like to approach each opponent as if they're the most important game of the season," said tri-captain Tori Conway '11. "But Ivy League games are special … obviously we wanted to come out with the win."
"I think our ability to play our own brand of lacrosse and play at our tempo was one of the most important lessons that we can put towards the rest of the season," Head Coach Keely McDonald '00 said.
Vital to the Bears' success this year has been the play of McGilloway, who was named Ivy League co-offensive player of the week. McGilloway leads the team with 14 points this season, seven of which came in Saturday's game.
"Our attacking unit is very strong in general," Conway said. "Kaela does a really good job helping to lead the attack, not only with controlling the tempo of the attack but also by scoring goals and assisting."
"I think Kaela did a nice job running the entire offense … but for one person to make that kind of impact, we need the entire group to be on the same page and to be successful," McDonald said. "We really feel like each goal that is scored is the effort of all seven people on attack."
McGilloway and the rest of the Bears hope to maintain momentum going into their match at Quinnipiac University Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
"Out-of-league games are just as important as Ivy games, and we want to come away with a major win," Conway said.
