Women’s lacrosse split their two matchups this past week, losing to George Mason 17-14 on Wednesday and defeating George Washington 14-8 on Saturday. With the win, Monmouth snaps their four-game losing streak and now stands at a 1-4 record overall.
Despite the 14-goal performance Monmouth failed to achieve a victory last Wednesday afternoon against George Mason. Both teams had their offensives firing on all cylinders as a total of 31 goals were scored between the two teams. George Mason jumped out to a three-goal advantage before the Hawks scored back-to-back unassisted goals to climb within one.
George Mason quickly responded with two more of their own to go up 5-2, but the Hawks would come within one thanks to senior attacker Alexa Smith who scored her first of the day off an assist from sophomore forward Nicole Ceraso. George Mason then would proceed to score the next five of seven goals to go into the half, up 10-6.
Monmouth’s senior midfielder Caroline Corbliss scored first in the second off an assist from junior midfielder Logan Smet to bring the Hawks within three. George Mason quickly put two more on the board to get back to a five-goal advantage with 24 minutes remaining. The Hawks scored seven goals over the remaining 24 minutes, including four in the final 15 but in the end came up short.
In the loss, the Hawks outshot their opponent to the tune of 39-35 and were positive in the turnover department. Also, junior goalie Riley Brager made ten saves to once again reach the double-digit mark.
“I thought today was much better offensively and defensively in terms of X’s and O’s. We are really missing consistency on the 50-50 opportunities and the scrap plays. We made significant personnel changes to have more specialty players on both offense and defense and I think that helped the chemistry on both ends of the field,” Monmouth Head Coach Jordan Trautman said.
Monmouth’s offensive picked up where it left off on Saturday, ripping off six straight goals to take the early and considerable lead over George Washington. Five different Hawks had multiple goals in the win with Corbliss and junior attacker Jenny Staines both coming away with hat tricks.
Staines had a team high five points in the win and offered her thoughts after the game. “I am really proud of our team, we have been working hard and it is nice to see our work pay off. We want this energy to carry over into the next game and get another win going forward.”
The Hawks took a comfortable 9-2 led into the break but George Washington did not go down easily. George Washington scored five goals to cut that lead to only five with 14 minutes to play. With momentum starting to shift, Monmouth responded with four straight goals, two of which came back to back from senior attacker Alexa Smith.
Monmouth was exceptionally efficient on their free positioning, going five for seven and keeping George Washington to three of nine. Additionally, Brager continued to impress as she registered her fourth double-digit save performance with a total of ten in the effort.
In the win the Hawks would secure their first victory of the season and with it came the first with Trautman at the helm. Trautman said, “I do not think we did anything differently, I think we executed some of the stuff we have been practicing. I feel that there was a different energy in today’s game. From the locker room to the warm ups, I feel that it was the different energy and not so much a different game plan.”
The Hawks now have wrapped up their five-game home stretch and will not return home until March 24. They will next take on Delaware on Wednesday Feb. 28.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
