A heartbreaker and a blowout. Those words describe the weekend for the GW women’s lacrosse team, which was dealt an 18-4 loss Sunday by visiting Temple, and a 15-14 loss by St. Joseph’s Friday.
The Owls turned their high-powered offense on the Colonials, scoring four goals in the game’s opening six minutes, created through speedy cross-cutting runs that paralyzed the GW defense.
GW (3-7, 0-4 A-10) scored its first goal at 19:17 when Heidi Mayer scored her 16th goal this season off a Meghan McDonough pass. Temple responded with five unanswered goals, making it 9-1 with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. GW could not recover.
Freshman Jamie Lee scored her 19th goal. Junior Jacqueline Arfaa added a goal.
The 18-4 loss was GW’s worst in its debut season as a varsity team, but GW head coach Jen Morris said it was to be expected when a team comprised of 13 freshmen hosts the conference’s top team.
“(Temple’s) number one in the conference. We would like to keep it closer, but you can’t expect every game is going to be great.” Morris said the team’s inexperience on defense made them vulnerable to Temple’s speedy attackers.
On Friday, visiting St. Joe’s overcame a five-goal deficit and scored with 31.5 seconds remaining to win 15-14.
“The game was frustrating because we started out so strong but then had a big let down,” Morris said of the team’s early 3-0 lead. “Again that was our youth and inexperience, not really knowing how to finish a game. We all felt that we were the better team and should have won the game. To lose that game was a really tough loss for us.”
Jen Heisler scored two early goals as she helped put the Colonials ahead 3-0. After heading into halftime tied at eight goals apiece, the teams traded leads through the second half. GW strung together four goals with three minutes remaining for a 14-12 lead, but a tough Hawks stand and three goals on goalkeeper Atkins ended the day for GW. Atkins made 10 saves on the day.
Freshman Jamie Lee notched two goals and two assists for four total points.
It isn’t all doom and gloom for the A-10 winless Colonials, who find themselves alone in last place after both losses this weekend.
“We’re getting better, and we’re learning. The more games we have like that the better,” Morris said on the loss.
