On a very cold, yet sunny, Saturday in Glassboro, Rowan women’s lacrosse suffered another defeat, this time to the No. 19 ranked Christopher Newport Captains by a score of 19-11. This loss extends their losing streak to four games now, with their record standing at 3-8.
Molly Green had one of her best games this season despite the loss, scoring five goals for the Profs to constantly try to will them back into the game. A good amount of spectators agreed on the fact that the 5-3 midfielder was like a pinball machine on the offensive end, bouncing off of defenders and doing everything she could to score for her team.
Green noted that the last two games she was pretty timid when it came to scoring, but this time around, she decided to take charge and get the ball closer.
“I think I just took [the] initiative to get to the net. I saw that pretty much every time I had the ball they were giving me the inside because they think that I don’t like my left,” Green said with a chuckle. “But I was like ‘alright, I’ll take what they’re giving me.’”
A large majority of the first quarter was spent with both teams seemingly feeling each other out. There wasn’t a goal scored until more than three minutes went by in the quarter. Shot-clock violations and long offensive possessions ruled the quarter and built the confidence of the Profs.
That is, until the second quarter started and disaster struck.
In the second quarter alone, the Captains scored nine goals compared to Profs’ five. Rowan goalie Mel Rodgers was bombarded with shot attempt after shot attempt, with most of them flying either over her head or close to it.
“I think we got a little too comfortable, possibly with the score, and we kind of let our guards down a little bit. I know at least I did,” Rodgers said. “I went in with a little too much confidence…”
With all the goals being scored at such a high rate and in such little time, anyone would begin to lose confidence as a goalie, but Rodgers kept telling herself that she had to keep going. She did not want to let her head hang or let anyone see that the score was affecting her.
“I know that I have to keep myself in check in order to help my team get through this,” Rodgers said.
Down the stretch, head coach Lindsay Delaney began to waive the white flag and take out her starters with the scoring margin being more than five.
“They won the draw control, and we weren’t putting pressure on them coming over the line, so we had to make that adjustment,” Delaney said. “Then they got settled in… Plus there’s four 40+ goal scorers on that team. They just have so many threats.”
With the Captains having a lot of talent on their team, Delaney had to make a decision on when to start face-guarding their best player, Kelsey Winters. Due to this defensive strategy, Julia Iapicca started to heat up for Christopher Newport, threading the ball into the net with some heat and finishing the day with seven goals.
Her performance led Delaney to make the decision to face-guard both players, with the intent to keep them at bay.
“We were already face-guarding their best player…so to face-guard two players throw off the whole defense,” Delaney said. “I was a little nervous to pull off that trigger too soon, but we tried to face-guard her with speed.”
With only six games left on the year for the profs, time is running out to be competitive and possibly fight for a spot in the NCAA tournament. Regarding the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) race, the Profs will play their first conference game on Saturday, April 13 when they face Kean University in Glassboro at 1 p.m.
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