Women’s lacrosse (4-10, 1-5 A-10) won their first conference game of the season, beating Virginia Commonwealth (4-9, 3-2 A-10) 15-14 in overtime Saturday.
The overtime win broke a three-game slide for the Revolutionaries after they fell to Davidson, Youngstown State and Saint Joseph’s through March. Graduate student attacker Emma Nowakowski scored eight goals during the game, breaking the program record previously held by Rachel Mia who held it previously in 2015 and Laura Hostetler who has maintained the record since 2005.
Nowakowski’s record-breaking eight total goals also shattered her previous career high of two goals during her time as an attacker for High Point University. Nowakowski, who is nicknamed “Ski” by her teammates, is a first-year law student.
“I think it was a team win,” Nowakowski said. “We finally put four quarters together, and it was a great feeling at the end of it.”
Nowakowski, senior attacker Katie Lederman, senior midfielder Phoebe Mullarkey and graduate student attacker Desiree Kleberg all scored goals throughout the first quarter, placing the Revs in the lead 6-4 after the first 15 minutes.
GW started the second quarter outscoring the Rams by four goals as VCU struggled to maintain possession of the ball in the first few minutes. Entering the second quarter, graduate student attack Kleberg nailed a shot 31 seconds into the quarter, bringing the score to 7-4 and widening the lead to 3. Less than a minute later, Kleberg landed another shot in the goal, widening the Revolutionaries’ lead to four goals.
Multiple free position attempts helped VCU close the gap as the teams ended the half tied 8-8. VCU launched a successful goal after obtaining a free position attempt, bringing the score to 5-8. Within a span of a minute and half, VCU managed to clinch three more goals, tying the quarter 8-8.
Nowakowski scored three goals in the third quarter, two of which were free position shots, giving the Revs a narrow 11-10 lead.
“We didn’t want to look at the score, we just wanted to do our thing,” Nowakowski said. “The ties, the goals, it’s all a momentum game and we just had to take advantage of it.”
Mullarkey scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, giving GW a two-goal lead within the first four minutes. However, turnovers and repeated fouls allowed the Rams back into the game, which finished with the score knotted at 14-14.
With a three-minute overtime, Nowakowski sealed GW’s win in less than 50 seconds. Nowakowksi obtained possession of the ball, launching a successful shot at the net.
Head Coach Colleen McCaffrey said the win was “much needed” and was the result of focusing on a combination of teamwork, culture, discipline and accountability on and off the field. The win comes after a four-game losing streak for the team and losses to conference opponents.
“Essentially doing your job on the field and then being respectful off the field, I think the team bought into that,” McCaffrey said. “They showed up today in every quarter, not just the first quarter, not just the fourth quarter. I think that was the consistency piece that we’ve been missing, which they stepped up today.”
The Revs will travel to Richmond, Virginia, to take on Richmond this Saturday at 1 p.m.
