Lacrosse caps season with a victory over VCU Sunday afternoon.
With the Rams trailing by one with just over seven minutes to play, senior midfielder Catie Perkins found the back of the net from the VCU doorstep, triggering a four-point scoring run for the Colonials to close out the victory.
The Colonials (6-6, 3-4 A-10) nabbed a five-point win over the Rams (6-8, 2-4 A-10) in a back and forth 14–9 duel in the final match of the season. Three different Colonials notched goals in the last four minutes of the game to keep the Rams at bay.
After suffering a 20–13 failed comeback defeat to Davidson Friday, the Colonials held a .350 shooting percentage Sunday afternoon, hitting .775 percent on frame to earn a season-high 38 shots on goal.
Eight different Colonials netted goals in the contest. Sophomore midfielder Amber Germer and Perkins spearheaded the GW offense, each with three goals to their name. Senior goalkeeper Alexa Solomon held a .600 save percentage with three saves and two goals allowed in 15 minutes of action to secure the final win of the season.
The first half of the match was a back and forth battle. The Colonials jumped out to a 3–1 lead early in the game, courtesy of a pair of goals from senior attacker Ioanna Mantzouratos and a single from junior attacker Kendall Lambert. However, a strike from Rams redshirt senior attacker Keriann McTavish spurred the VCU surge to tie the game with three goals on each side and less than ten minutes remaining in the half.
GW answered quickly, scoring three goals in less than five minutes to edge in front with a 6–4 lead. Rams junior midfielder Cammie Mann netted a goal in the final minute of the half to pull VCU within one point heading to the bench.
VCU started the second half with renewed vigor, scoring two consecutive goals in the first four minutes. Perkins responded with her second goal in the 35th minute, assuring the Colonials would never fall behind again for the rest of the game.
McTavish scored in the 50th minute to draw the Rams within one goal yet again at 10–9. Minutes later, Perkins responded with her third goal of the game to add to a career high 20 goals in a season and ensure the Colonial lead.
The Rams’ defense was unable to stymie the Colonial offense throughout the match. Graduate student goalkeeper Gillian Belfiore tallied 17 saves against GW and held a .548 save percentage, but it was not enough to keep the Colonials from outshooting the Rams by a wide margin of 14 tries at net.
Freshman midfielder Bailey Aaron drove home the final goal of the game with just over two minutes left to play, concluding GW’s conference play on an exclamation point and a 14–9 advantage.
Despite the Colonials forfeiting 10 turnovers in the match, GW dominated off the draw, snatching 17 draw controls to the Rams’ eight, 11 of which were handled by Perkins in her final game donning the buff and blue.
The Colonials end the season with six victories in conference play, surpassing the squad’s 2019 conference performance with just three wins. GW missed the entirety of conference play in 2020 due to the pandemic after dropping all seven of their non conference matchups.
