In front of almost 400 fans on an
unusually bright and slightly breezy March afternoon, the Oregon women’s lacrosse team, in familiar fashion, lost again.
The Ducks (0-5 overall, 0-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) took an early lead, went on a scoring drought and then battled back valiantly to no avail in a 15-9 home loss Saturday against Colgate (4-1, 1-0
Patriot League).
Oregon has seen similar early leads disappear against Stanford, Denver and UC Davis in
previous games.
“We just have to put together a
60-minute game,” freshman midfielder Jen May said. “It’s going to happen, and it’s going to be big.”
The Ducks seemed overmatched
by the defending Patriot League
champions at halftime, trailing
7-2. Oregon was 0 of 5 on free
position shots in the first half,
shut down by Red Raider goalkeeper Sue Bielamowicz, the Patriot League’s returning defensive player of the year.
But the young Ducks refused to go down quietly against a Colgate team that made it to last year’s NCAA tournament. Oregon allowed two quick Red Raider scores at the start of the second half to drop down 9-2, but then put together a late offensive rally. Beginning with freshman attacker Erin Gaebe’s fourth goal of the season at the 22:51 mark, the Ducks scored five goals to Colgate’s two within a six-minute period to make the score
11-7 with less than 17 minutes left in the game.
“They held their own in the
second half,” Oregon head
coach Jen Larsen said. “They
really fought some of (Colgate’s)
offensive motion.”
After a Colgate time-out, the Red Raiders put the game out of
reach when junior midfielder
Katie McVeigh scored her third
and fourth goals of the game at
the 14:57 and 9:56 marks,
putting Oregon down 13-7 with
just under 10 minutes to play.
May and freshman midfielder Theresa Waldron added late
scores for the Ducks, but so did
Colgate, making the final score
15-9, Red Raiders.
Larsen seemed pleased with her team’s effort against a Colgate team that lost only one player after last season’s 13-7 campaign.
“I’m proud of them today,” the first-year head coach said. “The first half, holding them scoreless for
15 minutes, that’s awesome.”
Despite the Ducks giving up a goal with one second remaining in the game, which gave Colgate eight goals in the half to Oregon’s seven, Larsen was particularly pleased with her team’s play in the latter part of the game.
“We tied them in the second half,” she said. “We’re winning some halves.”
After taking an early 1-0 lead with freshman attacker Jana Bradley’s ninth goal of the season, the Ducks allowed a 7-0 Red Raider run that proved insurmountable. Oregon, which went on a
33-minute scoring drought last week against UC Davis, again found difficulty finding the back of the net
after taking an early lead. May, who had a hat trick, scored her first goal of the day with 1:31 left in the first half, making the score 7-2, Colgate. The Davidsonville, Md., native’s score came 26 minutes after the Ducks’ first point.
“It’s hard to come back when you’re down five or six goals at halftime,” May said. “But we played (with) them.”
Freshman Jenny Browne said in the future the team will work on communication and leadership to help prevent the large scoring deficits the Ducks have consistently had to battle back from. But she remained confident in her team despite its 0-5 season start.
“I am really proud of us,” said Browne, who scored her first goal of the season in the game.
May was equally optimistic,
despite another loss.
“We want to be able to put a win up there, but we’re making huge, huge steps every week of practice,” she said.
May’s three goals led the Ducks, and Bradley added her team-leading ninth and tenth goals of the season in the loss. Junior midfielders McVeigh and Kelly Winning of
Colgate led all players with four scores apiece.
“When we do win, it’s going
to be huge, and we’re going
to thrive off that for a long time,” May said.