The Oregon women’s club lacrosse team advanced to the National Tournament, to be held May 9-13 in Dallas, Tex., after winning its league tournament Sunday.
Oregon hosted the Northwest Lacrosse Association league tournament and won its three games by a combined score of 56-19, defeating Oregon State 20-4 and Western Washington 17-7 in the first two games.
Though Oregon seemingly dominated the competition, its final game against Pacific Lutheran
University gave the team a scare as PLU kept the game close until the Ducks scored four unanswered goals before halftime, making the score 10-4.
“PLU put up a really good fight,” Oregon coach Louisa Dorsch said. “They have some really strong players and they’re such a hustling team that they don’t allow you to get lazy. I don’t think the score necessarily reflects how much they hustled. They make sure that we don’t stand still. You can’t let up for a second or they’ll take advantage of it. They have a lot of potential and next year we’re going to have to watch out for them.”
The Ducks continued with their aggressive scoring in the second half and won the game 19-8.
“They definitely stepped it up and made us work for it,” coordinator Sara Frazier said. “I knew we were capable of doing what we did. We just really came together and played the best we could. We knew what we had to do and played as a team.”
The win finalized Oregon’s season long goal of advancing to the National Tournament after being upset in double-overtime of the league finals last year. Oregon last appeared in the National Tournament two years ago andstruggled, according to Frazier.
Dorsch attributes the team’s success to their hard work in order to make sure they would not be upset again.
“Every practice they’re giving it their all. They’re making sure they’re calling each other out. No one gets to slack,” Dorsch said. “They made to sure to play out of league games to test themselves and make sure they’re better players.”
Junior attacker Allison Hosek led the team with 15 goals during the tournament, some of which were trick, behind-the-back shots.
Attacker Anneke Dorsch and midfielder Nikki Beckwith each contributed seven goals.
“Who doesn’t want to shoot behind their back?” Hosek said. “I figured we’re in a safe spot, might as well throw in a little flair in there, just try to have fun. You gotta do what you gotta do to get the ball in the goal.”
Though Hosek was a primary source of offense during the games, she says it isn’t about her statistics.
“I just get in the game. It’s not about points to me, it’s just about playing well,” Hosek said.
To prepare themselves for games in Texas, Dorsch believes the team needs to practice with extra intensity and keep playing fundamentally sound. Preparing for the heat, however, is another matter.
“I hear Dallas is not the coolest place,” Hosek said. “We definitely need to be training a lot harder.”
Frazier said that Dorsch will have the team practice in its sweats in hopes of adapting to the heat.
“We’re going to be running a lot, even more that we already have,” Frazier said. “We’ve been training for it all year. We’ll just take the heat as it comes.”