Coming off two straight losses last week against Cornell and Vanderbilt, the UNH women's lacrosse team needed to recover and finish strongly for the end of the season before things got worse. On a rainy Saturday at Memorial Field, the Wildcats regained themselves and overwhelmed the LeMoyne Dolphins, 17-5.
The win against the Dolphins improves the Wildcats to 9-6, 2-2 in the America East conference and 7-4 out of conference.
The Wildcats broke out to an early start, scoring six unanswered goals within the first 10 minutes of play and never looked back. LeMoyne nixed the possibility of a shutout at 21:29, but never seemed to be fully in the game. UNH led at halftime 12-4, with two goals each by sophomore Susie Piotrkowski and senior Ashley Durepo in the last minute of the half.
In the second half, the Wildcats held the Dolphins to just one goal, while UNH sophomore Allie Bratton scored two goals, one of them coming off of a free-position shot. Freshman Hayley Rausch recorded two assists. The Wildcats took 29 shots in the first half and 15 in the second, while holding the Dolphins to only 10 shots all game.
Causing turnovers helped UNH stifle LeMoyne's offense, as they had 29 takeaways in the game. UNH head coach Sandy Bridgeman thought that there were other factors as well.
"We came out pretty strong and scored pretty aggressively," Bridgeman said. "The first 10 minutes were a big factor. LeMoyne did a good job attacking, but possessing the ball helped us beat them."
Senior co-captain Michaela Hardy scored two goals within 20 seconds in the first half, at 26:46 and 26:28. Hardy also scored again at 21:30 in the second half, bringing her to 99 career goals. Hardy was noticeably happy to be one goal away from 100, but was already looking to the next game as soon as this one was over.
"It's exciting," said Hardy. "We have a couple weeks of practice and it feels good. We're going to have fun and keep going."
Senior Sarah Von Bargen had two goals and two assists in the game, bringing her career totals to 164 goals and 29 assists at UNH. She was proud of the cooperation and overall team play by the Wildcats.
"We worked better as a team and the defense stepped up big," said Von Bargen. "The motto of this week is 'Keep on Rolling.'"
UNH had 27 ground balls and 17 draw controls, while LeMoyne had only 16 ground balls and a mere seven draw controls. Penalties were a big drawback for LeMoyne, as they had five yellow cards handed out to their players.
The Wildcats received help from sophomore Deb Dale, who scored three goals in the game, two of them unassisted. Those were Dale's first goals of the season, and also broke her career-high number for goals per game.
"It feels good to contribute," said Dale. "We should transfer over our hard play and bring our stuff from today against Vermont."
The Wildcats have two games remaining in the regular season, and they will face Vermont in their final home game at Memorial Field on April 18. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
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