Cat Baker
Contributing Writer
Since the first game of the season on Feb. 23, The College of Wooster women’s lacrosse team has enjoyed a very successful season. In fact, they’ve won all nine games that they’ve played. Of those nine, eight of them have ended with scores that are at least twice as many points as the other team. The biggest blowout wins were against Westminster College with a final score of 20-4, Bethany College with a final score of 17-0, and Carthage with a final score of 23-2. As impressive as this seems, the women on the team weren’t surprised. According to Ashley Boersma ’21, “We were coming into the season with a big returning team from last year with a lot of talent and experience so with that and the hard work we put in during pre-season we had a good set up for success.” This sentiment was also echoed by Jordan Stone ’19, Caitlyn O’Connor ’21, Natalie Souleyrette ’19, Alexa Mellis ’21 and Emma Lawrence ’19.
After the Scots’ win 14-6 against John Carroll on Saturday, March 16, the team achieved a 6-0 record for the second time in the last four years. However, when they defeated Ursuline College 15-5 on March 30, their record became the best in program history for the start of a season since 1975. The Scots also came through with their first shutout since 2011 on March 2 when they beat Bethany College 17-0.
There were also some individual records that were set during the season. During the March 20 game against Baldwin Wallace, midfielder Megan Healy ’19 logged eight groundballs, seven draw controls and five caused turnovers. This moved her into first place on the program’s lists of all-time groundballs and draw controls, as well as matching the top spot for most caused turnovers in program history with a grand total of 121. Another notable player is senior Emma Lawrence, who was named NCAC Player of the Week after scoring four goals in the opening game against Capital. She had this to say about her new title: “Given that there are many talented players within the conference and my team alone, it was humbling to be recognized for my efforts. It was also exciting to watch another teammate earn and deserve NCAC Player of the Week.”
However, while the vast majority of the season has been smooth sailing, it hasn’t been completely easy. As Lawrence pointed out, “The Baldwin Wallace game was a tough one mentally for the team, I think. We had just come off of a big win from John Carroll and were 6-0 by that point, and the team started to feel comfortable in our success. Lawrence continued that in order to not get too comfortable with their position, their coaches “push us every day in practice to use what we did well and what we did poorly to further promote individual and team success. We are only beginning conference and have not played teams remotely close to our full competition, so we practice to meet those standards rather than to feel complacent in the current success we have.”
Not only does this group of women work hard, but they have fun with each other while doing it. Many players remarked on how supportive the team dynamic is and how great the chemistry is between the players. As Souleyrette put it, they “constantly cheer each other on and celebrate success both individually and as a team.” Over spring break, the team traveled to Hilton Head, S.C. where they not only secured a 22-5 win against Curry College, but they were also able to bond and become much closer as a team.
For the rest of the season, the women are looking forward to conference play and a chance to compete for the conference title. Alexa Mellis ’21 has an optimistic outlook for the team’s continued success. “One goal that I’ve had for this year was to make it to the conference championship again,” she said. “That was such a great experience last year as a first-year, and I am confident that we will be able to do it again!”