The Oregon women’s lacrosse team was literally inches away from its first victory.
In Sunday’s 11-9 home loss to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival UC Davis (2-1 overall, 2-1 MPSF), the Ducks (0-4, 0-3) twice hit the crossbar on shot attempts and had one potential score stopped centimeters short.
“We battled and clawed for every second of (the game),” head coach Jen Larsen said. “I wish we had five more minutes, it probably would have made a difference.”
The Ducks trailed 7-3 at the half before starting a furious rally late in the second. Behind 10-5 with 13:39 left in the game, freshman attacker Lindsay Pittard scored, igniting the Ducks’ run. Twelve seconds later, reserve midfielder Kate Fleming struck again for Oregon, shrinking the Aggie lead to three.
Fleming, playing with a broken nose, shot once at Aggie goalkeeper Kristen Braasch, got the rebound and put in her second chance. But the freshman from Cardiff, Calif., wasn’t done: The 5-foot-5 spark plug lit up the scoreboard again at the 8:57 mark, shrinking the UC Davis lead to two.
The Aggies, who finished third last year in the MPSF, killed the Ducks’ momentum, however, and put the game away when sophomore All-American Katie McMahon scored her fourth goal of the game with just 5:08 left to play, giving UC Davis an 11-8 lead. Oregon freshman midfielder Jen May added a late goal in the 28th minute for the final score of the game.
May and Fleming led Oregon with two goals apiece, while McMahon led all players with four goals.
“We put everything out there, it just didn’t quite work out,” a visibly upset Fleming said.
A source of contention for Oregon throughout the game was penalties. Larsen’s squad committed 32 fouls and drew three yellow cards and one red card in the game. The coach spent several minutes after the contest conferring with officials about the amount of defensive fouls called.
“We are an energetic and feisty group, so we want to make sure we contain ourselves to the point where (the officials are) thinking it’s good defense,” Larsen said.