Women’s lacrosse ends season with three wins

Sunday afternoon, the Laurier women’s lacrosse team hosted the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks, in a triumphant 14-4 victory. The team managed to finish the season at the top of the league, following up a close victory against the Western Mustangs followed by consecutive victories against Queen’s and UOIT on Sunday.

Saturday the Golden Hawks beat the defending Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champions, the Western Mustangs, with Laurier scoring the first five goals, and Western answering back with eight unanswered goals.
Laurier tied the game up, and scored the ninth goal with just a second left, wrapping up a significant momentous win.

They followed up the Western victory defeating Queen’s, where they put forth a solid performance throughout the entire game.

“We played just how we played the first five minutes with Western. It was a really good win for us, it really brought us together,” said third-year Meg Austriaco, who tallied three goals in the game against UOIT.

Second-year Allison Brogan’s ability to repeatedly bring the ball to the opposition end despite efforts from UOIT’s defense, with second-year Jennifer Taylor and Austriaco’s ability to convert, the team had a strong presence from start to finish.

The strategic play of the team capitalized on the inexperience of the Ridgebacks as this is the first year that UOIT has had a women’s lacrosse team.

UOIT was plagued by turnovers and giveaways, which came as a result of out of sync individual performances.

The individual plays of the UOIT players proved fruitless in most cases and exposed their poor defensive play, to the benefit of the Golden Hawks, so the ball nearly always remained in UOIT’s defensive end. The Golden Hawks had a 9-1 lead heading into half time.

Laurier drew strength from their ability to gain and sustain possession in UOIT’s end of the field, building pressure off the disorientation and disarray of the UOIT players.

Interestingly a majority of Laurier’s goals were a product of strategic, meticulous passing, as opposed to the crash-the-net methodology UOIT employed.

“Attack them; don’t wait for them to get it,” could be heard resonating from the UOIT coaching staff.

According to Hawks’ head coach Lynn Orth, the team has really gelled; considering their inexperience, the contributions of the rookies have been integral in the team’s goal for first in the league. Krissy Leeder is among the rookies that have contributed to this team’s success, scoring two goals against Queen’s earlier in the day.

The team heads to London next weekend to play in the OUA championship, hosted by Western. There, they will attempt to recapture the glory years when they dominated women lacrosse from 2003-08.