Sports

Women's lacrosse downs Moravian in season opener

In print | March 5, 2009

The women’s lacrosse team surged past Moravian this past Saturday to open their season with a win. The Garnet outscored the Greyhounds 13-5 in a game played on Haverford’s Swan Field as part of the second annual Tri-Co Invitational.

Moravian notched the first goal ten minutes into the game, but the Garnet responded with three consecutive goals in less than two minutes, which proved to be a recurring theme of the game; Moravian never scored back-to-back goals.

After Swarthmore’s first scoring flurry, a Moravian goal at the 16-minute mark drew the Greyhounds within one goal, but they would never get closer. Back-to-back goals by midfielder Amy Vachal ’11 and a goal by midfielder Anna de Regt ’09 off of a Moravian foul put the game considerably out of reach for the Greyhounds.

Swarthmore’s proficient offense, combined with stingy defense, began the season on a positive note and has sparked excitement among the players. Vachal wasted no time in an effort to surpass her team-leading 39 goals from last year with four goals on Saturday. De Regt and Emily Evans ’11 notched three goals apiece, giving the Garnet three players who scored hat tricks.

“After the first five minutes we settled down a little bit,” said defender Kelsey Hatzell ’09, who added a goal of her own. “I was impressed at how much teamwork there was, how much confidence we had in everyone on the field.”

Vachal added, “Before the Moravian game all of us visualized ourselves playing a flawless game, playing with no mistakes whatsoever. We’re definitely confident this year.”

A lot of that confidence is coming from the return of assistant coach Kristen English ’01. English, a three-time All-Conference defender at Swarthmore and 2001 NCAA Division III National Defender of the Year, has assumed the head coaching duties during head coach Karen Borbee’s sabbatical. English is back after taking last season off from coaching to focus on her graduate studies.

“She’s amazing at conditioning, and by amazing I mean she comes up with a lot of tortuous ways to keep us in shape,” goalkeeper Ally Grein ’10 said. Vachal credits English’s focus on conditioning as a key component to the team, “taking big strides to back [our confidence] up.”

The team’s poise and confidence came despite the absence of two-time All-Centennial selection Melissa Grigsby ’09. Grigsby, a defender who also made this year’s All-Centennial team as a basketball player, missed the game because her basketball season was still in progress. In her absence, however, the Garnet was able to step up on the defensive side of the field, allowing only five goals.

“Allison Kelly [’11] did an amazing job on Saturday, she was really like my right-hand girl,” said Grein, who was credited with 11 saves in the game. Grein also noted, “On defense we wanted to be loud, talk a lot and communicate with each other.”

The Garnet did just that, playing strong defense and disrupting Moravian’s offensive flow. The Greyhounds were never able to get into a rhythm offensively, and were held scoreless for long stretches of 14 and 19 minutes. “Everyone was shifted a little out of position, taking on a slightly different roles, but we came together well for the first game,” Hatzell said.

The Garnet point to making the playoffs as a major goal for the season and are taking the proper steps to make their goal a reality. “This is somewhat different from other years because we have a deep team, there’s going to be a lot of contributors,” Hatzell said. Some of those contributors are the new faces, the first-years who on Saturday looked like seasoned veterans. “[The first-years were] very calm and asserted themselves very well on the field. People wouldn’t have picked them out to be first years,” Hatzell added. Grein echoes Hatzell’s sentiments, noting that the class of 2012 has “a lot of talent.”

Marie Mutryn ’12,pitched in two goals for the Garnet, highlighting a number of spirited efforts from the team’s first-years in their college debut.

What’s next for the team is what Grein calls the “tour de South,” a spring break trip that includes games against Savannah College of Arts and Design in Georgia and Greensboro College in North Carolina. “We come on the other side of spring break as a closer team,” Grein said. “The break is when the freshmen really start to come out of their shells.”

The Garnet’s home opener will be played Thursday, March 19 against Immaculata, and they will kick off league play on Saturday, March 21 against Gettysburg.