By: Athletic Communications Intern, Cameron Frank
RALIEGH, N.C. – St. Mary’s College of Maryland women’s lacrosse (1-0) began the season white-hot with a commanding 13-5 victory against Meredith College (0-1). The Seahawks traveled to Raleigh with purpose and resilience as they shook off giving up the first goal to rattle off six straight in a dominating response. Once the Seahawks had momentum, they took firm control of the game until the clock hit zero to start off the season with a wave of positive momentum.
How It Happened
- The game began a bit shaky as the Seahawks gave up the first goal via a free position shot from Meredith’s Lilia Cruz three minutes in. However, Kate Bartholomew responded two minutes later with a goal of her own, tying up the game. 25 seconds later, she scored again, causing St. Mary’s College to take the lead in a truly powerful response to Cruz’s free position shot.
- The game then suddenly became quiet for the next nine minutes as St. Mary’s College clung to a one-point lead. Both defenses tightened up significantly before St. Mary’s College broke through and scored two more goals from Lucy Gussio and Kate Bartholomew respectively within two minutes of each other.
- In an eerie sense of deja vu, another nine minute lull followed by two St. Mary’s College goals within two minutes occurred, putting the Seahawks up by five with four minutes to go in the half. Gussio and Bartholomew even scored these two goals as well, only making the parallels more striking. Meredith’s Victoria Whitmer would score once before halftime, but the Seahawks were still up by four at the intermission.
- Whitmer came out of the second half with purpose, scoring a second goal only a minute into the second half to lower Meredith’s deficit to three. However, as in the first half, the Seahawks responded convincingly by scoring five straight goals.
- With slightly over 11 minutes to go, Meredith scored two goals in 40 seconds to cut their deficit to six, but St. Mary’s College responded with two goals of their own; the second goal with five minutes left, to put the game out of Meredith’s reach for good.
Inside the Box Score:
- Bartholomew noticeably led the team with five goals, twelve shots, and eleven shots on goal.
- Nancy Slaughter and Susanna Schmidt had two assists, tying each other for the team lead.
- Jodi Credit fielded four ground balls, narrowly edging the other four Seahawks with three ground balls for the team lead.
- Aimee Uibel takes a win as the goalkeeper, saving nine out of the fourteen shots against her goal.
Up Next for the Seahawks
- Feb. 19 vs Randolph Macon | 7:00 PM | Jamie L. Roberts Stadium