The Elizabethtown College women’s lacrosse team arrived in Madison, NJ to take on Drew University with fire in their eyes and passion in their hearts. Unfortunately, that fire and passion did not work out for the Blue Jays, as they lost to the Rangers, 21-6.
A little more than two minutes into the game, when Drew player Anna Florini scored the first goal of the game, and her ninth goal of the season. But, less than 20 seconds after Florini, sophomore Addie Stang scored her first goal of the game for Etown, tying the game 1-1. Within the next seven minutes, Drew scored six more goals to widen their lead to a score of 7-1.
By the end of the first half, Drew had scored eight more points and Etown scored four, including two more for Stang, giving her a hat trick, and two for first-year Cierra Eckenrode, making the score 15-5. The second half was uneventful for the Blue Jays, with only one goal scored by Eckenrode, yet again, giving her the team’s second consecutive hat trick in one game The Blue Jays shot on goal 14 times throughout both halves, while Drew shot 36 times.
“We are a young team,” first-year goalie Michelle Fuller said while talking about the rough loss. “We need to work on our mental game as a whole.” Stang had similar thoughts, but remained more optimistic about the future of the team. “We’re just working through that aspect of the game, continuing to improve our unit play with each game.”
While the game may have ended in a loss, the girls still believe that the team had moments that really shone. “We worked well in the settle offense making cuts,” Stang said. “And fought through the entire game, which is a huge team goal of ours.” Fuller agreed with Stang’s statements about the settle offense, and also commended the work of the defense later in the game. “At the end of the game, the team did a good job pressuring the Rangers causing turnovers on the offensive side,” Fuller said.
The team plays the University of Scranton on Saturday at 12 p.m. “I always look forward to our next opponent.” Fuller said, “It’s another chance to better our team as a whole unit.” Expect to see Fuller’s determination and optimism throughout the entire team on Wednesday. In the words of Stang, “Every game is a new day to go out and fight.”
