While most students spent spring break relaxing and doing anything that didn’t involve thinking, the Oregon lacrosse team spent it working hard and winning games.
The Ducks played four games over the week in New York, Vermont and at Pape Field, plus another the previous weekend in Hawaii.
The Ducks advanced their overall record to 6-5 and 2-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The week before spring break, Oregon traveled to Honolulu to play No. 3 Johns Hopkins in the first-ever NCAA women’s lacrosse match in the Aloha State.
The Ducks were able to score seven goals, but that wasn’t enough to defeat powerhouse Johns Hopkins, which scored 15 goals.
“We’re going to continue to challenge ourselves by playing top opponents,” Oregon coach Jen Larsen said. “We are taking a lot away from these games and trying to show that we can play with top competition.”
The following week Oregon returned to Pape Field to host the Ohio Bobcats, who came into the game 1-6 overall. The Ducks gained momentum early, thanks to Lindsay Killian’s goal six seconds into the match, and Oregon maintained focus until the end.
Killian, a sophomore attacker, stood out as the leading scorer for the Ducks against Ohio with three goals.
“We were confident coming into the game, having defeated them last year,” Killian said. “We wanted to get our momentum going into the three games next week (during spring break).”
The Ducks headed east for the remainder of the week to face off against Marist College, Colgate University and University of Vermont.
At Leonidoff Field in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the Ducks defeated Marist 19-6.
“I was pleased with the team in (Tuesday’s) effort. We played well in all phases of the game and had solid efforts in offense and defense as well as at the goalkeeping position,” Larsen said.
Oregon continued its road trip to Hamilton, N.Y., with only a day to rest before taking on Colgate University. The Ducks fell behind 2-0 in the first six minutes and weren’t able to regain momentum or take the lead. Colgate defeated Oregon 15-7.
One of Oregon’s top team scorers, redshirt freshman attacker Alison Leiner, was able to net one goal, scooped six ground balls and caused two turnovers against the Colgate defense.
The last stop on Oregon’s East Coast road trip was Burlington, Vt., to face the University of Vermont on April 1. The Ducks recovered from the previous loss against Colgate and defeated Vermont 15-7. Eight different Oregon players scored for the team, marking the fifth time in a row that the Ducks have had at least six different scorers.
On defense, Anna Poponyak, a redshirt freshman goalkeeper, made 16 saves for Oregon in the net.
“We played a solid game and we were able to execute and take advantage of Vermont’s mistakes,” Larsen said in a University press release. “We played solidly on offense and we had a great, tenacious defense in the form of Anna Poponyak, who played a magnificent game in net for us.”
Oregon returns to Pape Field to host the University of Denver Friday in an MPSF conference matchup. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
The Pioneers come into the game 3-0 in the MPSF and have an overall record of 9-2. Denver leads the MPSF, one game ahead of Oregon and No. 19 Stanford.
The Pioneers will come to Eugene with a seven-game winning streak. They defeated Oregon 17-12 last season.
Spring break games test Ducks’ mettle
Daily Emerald
April 4, 2006
Sophomore goalkeeper Allison O’Brien and the Ducks host Denver Friday at 7 p.m. O’Brien has a .444 saves percentage this season.
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