Photo by Matt Hembree
By Harry Davis
Staff Writer
On Saturday, April 15, the Sewanee Women’s Lacrosse team lost to Rhodes College 17-11 in their final Southern Atlantic Association game of the year.
Rhodes came into this game undefeated, on average outscoring their opponents by a margin of 15 goals. Even though the Rhodes Women’s lacrosse team has only been in existence for four years, they have already cemented themselves as a premier team in the Southeast. Previously, they beat Oglethorpe 26-0, Hendrix 25-4, and Centre 18-8.
In a four-game winning streak themselves, the Sewanee women’s lacrosse team turned out dominant performances against Centre, Millsaps, Piedmont, and Oglethorpe. Scoring for the Tigers was not a problem, as they scored 20, 18, 16, and 12 goals in those games respectively.
Sewanee came out strong in the first half with Catherine Crigler (C’19) scoring the first goal for the Tigers. Sewanee continued to push, with the score set at 4-4 midway through the half. Rhodes began to pull away slightly at the end of the half with four unanswered goals before Sewanee scored twice to end the half at 8-6.
Sewanee kept the game close due to great goaltending, as the Lynx were outshooting the Tigers 21-11, and Sewanee goaltender Brianna Young (C’19) lead the game with seven saves to Rhodes’ three.
Rhodes came out in the second half firing as they scored three straight goals, which was again answered by another Sewanee run of three goals to bring the margin back to three. The Lynx then scored six straight to make the score 17-9 before Sewanee scored twice late to end the game. Sewanee played tough in the second half, dominating ground balls and even limiting turnovers, but Rhodes was too much when they poured on 18 more second-half shots.
Although a tough loss for the Tigers, the Lynx are a dominant team and the Tigers proved they could play with them and even potentially beat them. In a game characterized by runs, the Sewanee players’ trust in each other proved to be steadfast. Each time Rhodes went on a streak of goals, Sewanee answered, even until the end.