The women’s lacrosse team traveled down to Purchase, New York Wednesday afternoon to open up this season’s conference play by defeating the Valiants of Manhattanville 22-10.
This year’s women’s lacrosse team has begun to let its loss column collect some dust and it seems like this week it got a little dustier. The Lady Colonels are off to their best start in school history by remaining undefeated and this week they opened up the first game of conference play by keeping that win streak alive.
The Lady Colonels traveled down to Purchase, NY to face off against Manhattanville. The game started off close with the Lady Colonels leading 4-3 with 16 minutes remaining in the first half. It would only take 9 minutes for the Lady Colonels to tack on 8 consecutive goals to make the scoreboard a little uneven at 12-3.
Senior midfielder Gabby Ford scored four of those goals while assisting on one. Manhattanville did respond to the goal surge with a little surge of their own. Manhattanville quickly put up four quick goals to close the lead down to 12-7.
In the first half Wilkes had outshot Manhattanville 23-15 and had committed only two turnovers compared to ten for Manhattanville.
Where things began to look momentous for Manhattanville at the end of the first half, they began to slink back down into the second.
The Lady Colonels came out of the gate and scored seven consecutive goals to take the lead to 19-7. Sophomore midfielder Tori Kerr and Junior midfielder Carley Smith both tallied up two goals and an assist during the Lady Colonels’ 7-0 run. The second half was concluded after Gabby Ford scored the Lady Colonels’ sixth and final goal to take the score to 22-10.
Ford finished the game with eight points (6 G, 2 A), Carley Smith had seven points (4 G, 3 A), while Tori Kerr and Sophomore defender/attacker Madeleine Brownsey each scored five goals on the day.
Freshman goalie Morgan Galluzzo earned the win in goal letting in 10 goals and making 6 saves. The Lady Colonels outshot the Valiants 42-22 and committed only four turnovers compared to the 17 that Manhattanville had committed.
The numbers tell the story and the Lady Colonels seemed to handle Manhattanville just fine, of course statistics can’t describe what it actually takes to keep a streak like this alive. And while a game may look like a cakewalk on the scoreboard, Madeleine Brownsey assures us that it was not the case on Wednesday.
“Although we won by a decent margin it was a very tough and challenging game, but with a lot of determination and team effort were were able to bring home the win.”
With a long road ahead of them, the Lady Colonels are confident that they can keep up the good vibes and perform well in the conference.
“I honestly think we have the potential to make it to the finals.” Tori Kerr said, “Maintaining this streak has been a challenge with some of the better teams we have faced but I know if we keep playing hard we most certainly have the potential to go far in the conference.”