Women’s lacrosse drops two games as season begins to wind down

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
April 25, 2007

As they closed out their home schedule before hitting the road, the women’s lacrosse team dropped two games this week, one each to Saint Joseph’s and Richmond.

Freshman Stefany MeKee launches the ball Friday against Saint Joseph's - Mike Dao

Friday afternoon it was the Saint Joseph’s Hawks making the trip up Route 1 to play the Explorers at McCarthy Stadium. The contest marked the final home game of the season for La Salle.

After Explorer junior Emily Bonczek scored the first goal of the day, the Hawks ripped off nine straight goals to take over the game.

Bonczek’s goal came only 51 seconds in, but the Explorers did not score for the next 24:43, while the Hawks were going on their huge run. The Explorers trailed 9-2 at the half.

As the second half began, the Explorers played with real intensity. Senior Catie Borneman scored three second-half goals to try to keep La Salle in it.

But even with this effort, the Explorers could not keep St. Joe’s off the scoreboard. Each team scored five goals in the second half, and the final score was St. Joe’s 14, La Salle 7.

Because it was the last home game of the season for the Explorers, it was the final home game of three seniors’ collegiate careers. Borneman, Tiffany Grossi and Brittany Friedrich all competed in their final home games in Explorer uniforms.

Grossi had four ground balls on the day, putting her in triple digits for her career, with 102.

With the loss, the Explorers fell to 4-8 on the year, and 0-4 in the Atlantic 10. The Hawks improved to 6-6, and 1-3 in the conference.

After that, the Explorers took a trip down the East Coast for a Sunday matchup with the Richmond Spiders.

In terms of scoring, this game was very similar to the game against St. Joe’s. This time, it was Explorer freshman Jill Davis who scored the game’s first goal.

That’s where the fun ended, as Richmond did the rest of the first-half scoring. The Spiders outdid the Hawks, as they scored 11 straight over a span of 26:13 to put it out of reach by halftime. The Spiders led 11-1 at the half.

La Salle had goals from Bonczek, freshman Rachel Kilgore, Borneman and Grossi in the second half, but they could not close the gap, as Richmond outscored the Explorers 6-4 in the second. The final score was Richmond 17, La Salle 5.

The Explorers dropped to 4-9, and still haven’t picked up a win in conference play. Richmond moved to 10-5 (4-1) with the win.

The women’s lacrosse team will be back in action Friday, when they travel down Broad Street to play Temple at 4 p.m. They will then travel to play Massachusetts on Sunday.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu