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Jake Mrozewski | Phoenix Staff

Emily Evans searches for a pass while warming up on Clothier Field. Evans leads the team in successful shot percentage with 63.6%.

BY ANDREW GREENBLATT

In print | Published March 19, 2009

The women’s lacrosse team returned unscathed and energized from a “Tour de South” spring break trip. The Garnet were victorious in each of two games over the break, beating Savannah College of Arts and Design 18-4 and Greensboro 15-11. Swarthmore continued to carry its momentum after returning home, winning a double-overtime thriller against Widener on Tuesday to give them a record of 4-0.

In a contest on Sunday, March 8, Swarthmore showed signs of its pre-break form, dominating Savannah College of Arts and Design at the Bees’ home field in Savannah, Georgia, from the get-go.
Amy Vachal ’11, who had five goals on the day, scored 32 seconds into the game, and the Garnet never looked back.

Swarthmore went on rallies of four, five and six straight goals during the game, repeating their impressive defensive performance from their season-opening victory against Moravian, holding their opponents without a goal for stretches of 10 and 37 minutes each. Savannah did not score in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Garnet offense was as balanced as the defense was stifling, as nine different players for the Garnet put the ball in the net and combined for seven assists.

The winning ways continued in the second matchup of the trip, this time against Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday, March 12, though the 15-11 score was a little less lopsided than the previous game. “The second game was a little hard for us because we just got out of an eight-hour car ride,” Allison Kelly ’11 said. “We were a little rusty, to say the least.”

The 11 goals are the most the Garnet has surrendered all season. The unusually high total is largely the result of a late run by Greensboro.

The Garnet had held it together until the 13 minute mark. After being up 14-7, thanks to a run of six straight goals, the Garnet were faced with a Greensboro surge of four goals in the final 13 minutes, an effort that closed the gap but that was not enough to make up for the early deficit.

The women carried their momentum into Tuesday, as the Garnet won a 13-12 thriller against Widener in double overtime.

After a 12-12 deadlock after regulation play, an initial overtime period left both teams still unable to pull out a victory.

It was Marie Mutryn ’12 who put the game away for the Garnet, scoring her third tally of the game with 2:01 left in the second overtime period. Emily Evans ’11 scored five in the winning effort.

With a spring break and team trip so early in the season, the team had an opportunity to bond and get comfortable with each other earlier than players are often able to do so on other teams.
Sports teams in both the fall and winter have their breaks almost mid-way through their seasons.
Lacrosse, on the other hand, takes a trip after having played only one game due to the timing of spring break, which falls early in the spring sports season. “It was different than soccer,” Mutryn said. “I got way closer to the freshmen than I was [before],” added the two-sport athlete.

“We cooked dinner for each other and had assigned vans. There was a lot of driving, so we got to know [the girls in] our van pretty well,” Vachal said.

The early comfort paid off for the Garnet first-years. Goals posted by Mutryn, Annalise Mowy ’12 and Maddie Williams ’12, and assists by Williams and Phoebe Hansen ’12 have ignited optimism throughout the Garnet roster.

“We are more ready for our conference schedule than we were last season,” said Kelly. “It’s a big confidence booster that we’ve started out winning.”

“It’s cool to be a freshman and be able to start,” said Mutryn of her early success. “Coach bases starters on ability and how you will be able to contribute. As freshman, you don’t expect to play that much, but a lot of us are.”

The Garnet will need all of the contributions they can muster for a tough stretch of games against Centennial Conference opponents throughout the rest of the season. The latest Intercollegiate Women’s College Lacrosse Association poll ranks conference opponents Franklin & Marshall at #3 and Gettysburg at #4 nationally, while Dickinson is also listed among the teams receiving votes for a ranking, but Swarthmore remains optimistic and light-hearted.

Leading scorer Vachal joked, “That’s how we roll; we have momentum like a lacrosse ball rolling down a hill.” She continued, “We want to continue that momentum. The ball rolls down the hill and eventually into a goal.”

Ultimately, that goal could be a Centennial Conference playoff birth for the Garnet, which would be the first since 2006.

Disclosure note: Sports Writers Maddie Williams and Emily Bryant are members of the women’s lacrosse team but had no role in the production of this article.

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