St. Mary’s will be out for revenge against the Ducks this weekend as the Oregon women’s lacrosse team travels to the Bay Area to play the Gaels in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.
The last time the two teams met at Papé Field in March, Oregon thrashed St. Mary’s, 19-6.
The Gaels will definitely want to swing the game in their favor this time, particularly because this Saturday is Senior Day for St. Mary’s, marking the final home game of their season. The eight seniors on the St. Mary’s roster will be recognized before the game.
Since falling to Oregon last month, the Gaels (1-10 overall, 0-4 MPSF) have lost four more games and registered their only win of the season on March 22 against Marist.
Oregon, on the other hand,
has shown strong signs of
improvement.
After scoring 10 or more goals in only one of its first five matches, the Ducks have averaged 12.9 goals per game in their last seven contests. Based on MPSF statistics, Oregon is the highest scoring team in the league.
The Ducks currently hold a 3-9 record overall and sit in fifth place in the MPSF standings — right above St. Mary’s.
Jen May and Jana Bradley lead the Ducks in scoring with 30 and 21 goals respectively. Freshmen Jackie Spencer and Jen Utley have combined to produce 25 goals for the Gaels this year.
“As usual, we’re just going to focus on our own game plan,” said Oregon head coach Jen Larsen, whose Ducks will be out hunting for their fourth win this weekend
after two weeks away from NCAA conference play.
“The cool thing is that our game plan has evolved so much since
the last time we played St. Mary’s. Our learning curve has been so great that we’re going to be able
to have new things in place and
to come out and do something
different,” Larsen said.
If the Ducks win this game, they will set themselves up for an
easier trip in the upcoming MPSF
Championship Tournament. All six teams in the MPSF conference will be at St. Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., for the tournament May 4-7, but earning a higher seeding would mean an easier bracket of play.
A win on Saturday will allow Oregon to stay out of last place in the conference standings. It will also give the Ducks an outside chance of finishing the season in the top half of the league.
Oregon will try to defend against St. Mary’s revenge
Daily Emerald
April 13, 2005
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