The Oregon women’s lacrosse team closed out its inaugural season with a 16-12 win against St. Mary’s at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship tournament on Friday.
The win marked the third time this season the Ducks have beaten the Gaels. However, this time victory was only bittersweet because it came on the heels of a heartbreakingly close 7-6 loss to UC Davis in the opening round of tournament play.
“It was a valiant fight between two teams,” Oregon head coach Jen Larsen said after the game against UC Davis. “We just made a few too many errors.”
Still, the Ducks made the Aggies work for their win Thursday, never allowing Davis to pull ahead by more than a single goal until the final minutes of the game.
Eventually, a free position shot off the cross by Davis midfielder Katie McGovern made the difference in the game with ten minutes left to play. McGovern’s goal gave the Aggies a 7-5 lead against the Ducks. Oregon scored again five minutes later, but as a result of some missed opportunities it never found the final goal to tie the game.
“We were fortunate to have a lot of opportunities, including a couple of eight-meter shots in the last 20 seconds; that could have made a difference,” Larsen said. “Unfortunately, it’s always hard when you’re a goal behind, and we didn’t quite capitalize on those opportunities.”
Davis went on to lose to Denver, 10-8, in the third-place game.
Oregon’s Friday win against St. Mary’s gave the Ducks a fifth-place finish in the MPSF tournament standings.
Freshman midfielder Kate Fleming and attacker Jana Bradley each contributed three goals in the victory. Fleming also had three assists, and fellow midfielder Jen May put up another two goals and an assist.
“I’m really proud of how the girls pulled themselves together and rebounded so quickly after the heartbreaker against Davis,” Larsen said at the end of the tournament. “They
didn’t take St. Mary’s for granted and
instead came out fighting and really performed well.”
St. Mary’s was behind for the full
60 minutes of the game. Oregon came out with a desire to redeem itself for the loss against the Aggies and quickly built up a four-goal lead early in the first half.
Despite relentless pressure from a persistent St. Mary’s offense, the determined Ducks never allowed the Gaels to get into the game.
“I thought we had a consistent effort from the entire team,” Larsen said. “We came with a balanced attack, and despite some errors, worked really hard for the win. It is always nice to end the season on a winning note.”
Three Ducks finished the season with a number of individual accolades. May was selected as the MPSF’s Newcomer of the Year and was named to the All-MPSF women’s lacrosse team along with teammate Bradley. May ended the season with a team-high
41 goals, and Bradley finished second with 30 goals.
Fleming finished third on the team scoring list with 24 goals and was named to the MPSF Championship tournament’s All-Tournament team.
The Ducks will go into their sophomore season coming off a 6-11 inaugural campaign in which they won four of their last six games.
“I know that there are a few moments that we would love to be able to go back and replay, but overall this was an amazing first season with a group of freshmen who did a great job of representing Oregon,” Larsen said.