The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women’s lacrosse team edged out a win Sunday morning, ending their match against Queens 7-5 after beating McMaster 12-1 the previous day. Coming off of last week’s 2-1 loss to Guelph, head coach Lynn Orth was happy to see practice paying off for her team.
“This game was totally different than the game we lost last week,” she said. “We did not play our game last week. We did not want to win the small battles and as a result we lost the big game.”
Ashley Rutz, a first-year player for the team, having transferred from Lasalle in Philadelphia, had a huge weekend for the Hawks, picking up 10 points over the two games.
High off the win, Rutz said the team was starting to get the hang of it.
“We’re really coming together on the field,” she said. “We’re really one as a team, we’re like a family.”
Shouts of “Move your feet Laurier, move your feet!” could be heard from the sidelines throughout the game, however, emphasizing that the team needs to continue to work hard to improve.
Both Orth and Rutz credit this win to the team’s defensive skills, but know it will take more to get them through the season.
“We need to work on our offence,” Orth said. “We’re working on the things we need to do; it’s just a matter of executing.”
Next week the team will have a double-header in Kingston playing against University of Toronto and University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Orth knows Toronto will be a force to be reckoned with.
“U of T is always a force. They have a great pool to draw from because of all their grad schools and so you can never count them out,” she said.
Orth is unsure of what to expect from UOIT because they are a new squad. “It will be two interesting games.”
Orth has been focusing on trust and teamwork in practice and doesn’t expect to alter that this week.
“It’s a matter of the team gelling and people getting to trust their teammates and where they’re going to be and what they are going to be able to do.”
