Heavy wind and rain couldn’t stop the Rowan women’s lacrosse team from getting their first win back from about a two week-long break on Thursday night against Cabrini College. The Profs’ eventual 11-7 victory over the Cavaliers was hit by a 30-minute lightning delay following halftime.
The game was the first for Rowan since March 26, a loss to Washington College.
“I just told them, I thought the offensive movement we had was the best I’ve seen in a long time. There was a lot of communication and a lot of good team work,” head coach Lindsay Delaney said. “Transitionally, the first half we did really well. In the second half we got sloppy. I don’t know if their pressure made us play different. We’ll have to work on that if that’s the case.”
Delaney also said that the defense played a little frantically against the Cavaliers because they wasn’t used to their opponent’s offensive style.
Rowan opened up the game on a 6-0 run with goals from junior attackers Megan Donnelly, Danielle Hubbs and Rachel Hofbauer. Donnelly, who knocked in the first two for her team, would have a hat trick still with nine minutes to go in the opening frame.
With six minutes left in the half, Cabrini started showing some life and managed to put in three goals before the break.
“It was really important [to start hot]. We tried changing our attack, we’re doing a whole different play now. It gives you lanes and more opportunities to go to goal,” Hofbauer said. “It’s just keeping the ball moving and looking inside. That’s what we’re focusing on.”
The teams had to shake off a bit of rust after waiting around during the extended delay. In the second, Rowan would outscore Cabrini, 5-4, including a goal one minute into the half.
Hofbauer tacked on her third and fourth goals of the game, and senior attack Rachel Emerson, sophomore attack Kim Doyler and freshman midfielder Taylor Gretz added a score each.
“I just really wanted to come back out and win. I don’t really like delays, but we just set goals and worked on what we needed to fix,” Hofbauer said. “We also tried to remember what we had planned at the beginning of the game.”
Rowan 11, Cabrini 7
For questions/comments about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitSports.
