The women’s lacrosse team played three games over spring break, defeating St. Mary’s College and the University of Southern California and falling to Dartmouth.
The Bears won a suspenseful game against USC with a goal by co-captain Bre Hudgins ’14 in the last 15 seconds of the third overtime to make the final score 9-8. USC (5-8) took the first half of the game leading the Bears (7-2, Ivy League 1-2) by four goals until the final minute when Danielle Mastro ’14 scored to narrow the margin to 6-3 before halftime.
“As a group we had each other’s back and played fearlessly in that game,” Hudgins said. “Being able to come out on top after going into halftime down 3 goals took a full team effort and everyone did their jobs to help us be successful.”
Bruno came out with a bang in the second half with two goals by Hudgins and one by Alyssa DiBona ’15 with less than 20 minutes left, evening the score at 6-6.
After a USC goal, Grace Healy ’14 and Janie Gion ’15 scored to put the Bears up by one at 8-7 with less than three minutes to go. USC forced the game into overtime with a goal at the 45-second mark.
“The USC game was one of the toughest challenges we’ve faced as a team and it took all 29 of us to secure that win,” Hudgins said. “USC was a great opponent and as a group we really grew a lot.”
The squad continued its spring break games with its fourth straight win, in which it defeated St. Mary’s last Tuesday. Hudgins was instrumental in the Bears’ attack, contributing three goals and an assist.
Brown started a nine-goal streak in the first half with three by Hudgins and two goals each added by Gion and Mastro. The Gaels (3-6) scored with 14 seconds remaining, leaving the score 9-1 at halftime. Five more Bears contributed goals for the win including Kasey Wagner ’13, Lindsay Minges ’13, Julia Carellas ’15, Sarah Nesi ’16 and Carolyn Westphal ’16, which resulted in a final score of 14-3. The win against St. Mary’s brought the Bears’ record to 7-1.
“We are a group of really hard working people who all have a common goal and that’s to make it to the Ivy League tournament,” Hudgins said.
The women’s lacrosse team not only prepares with practices and playing on the field, but it also has rituals off the field that players said they find valuable to their success.
“Before every game, our team comes up with a word for the game to write on our wrist so that we know we can always look down on our wrist and know that we are all in it together,” DiBona said. “When there is a concrete thing we can look to, it helps us realize that we are playing for each other.”
Despite its efforts on and off the field, the squad fell to No. 15 Dartmouth (7-3, 3-0) last Saturday 8-7. Four back-and-forth goals between the teams occurred in the first fifteen minutes of the game, with goals by Abby Bunting ’15 and Hudgins. Minges broke the tie with a free-position goal at 12:23, and Bunting added her second goal of the game, making the score 4-2 at halftime.
The Big Green scored in the first two minutes of the second half, followed by two more goals with 20 minutes in the game, giving them a 5-4 advantage. Bunting added her third goal of the game shortly after to tie up the score.
The Bears earned back the lead, 7-5, with 13:54 remaining on the clock with goals by Bunting, Healy and Gion. Bruno’s defense was solid in the remainder of the second half after a yellow card at 12:10 left the team a man down. Goalie Kellie Roddy ’15 contributed five saves in the effort, yet the Big Green was able to tie the game 7-7 with four minutes remaining. A Brown turnover gave Dartmouth the breakaway leading to the final goal of the Ivy League match up, with Brown falling by the one goal margin.
“We try to not compare ourselves too much to other teams and really just try to focus on us and how we can improve and get better,” Hudgins said.
The squad will return to Stevenson Field Saturday April 6 at noon to play Harvard in another Ivy League game.
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