Women's Lacrosse Captures first win of the Season

Apparently, being 700+ miles away from Plymouth State University is what the Women's Lacrosse team needed to capture their first win of the season. On Wednesday afternoon (3/19) the Panthers were able to defeat Ferrum College, 16-6, to improve their record to 1-2 on the season.
 

The reason why this game took place some 700+ miles, and 7 states away is because PSU is on their Spring Break trip that took them down South for the week. A nasty Winter storm eliminated any chance that Plymouth had to play in their first game South of the Mason-Dixon line on Monday, as a field covered in snow, sleet, and ice postponed their game against Greensboro College. Because of this postponement, the Panthers were forced to wait 11 days between their last game (a 8-5 loss against Springfield College) and their contest against Ferrum.

Unfortunately for Ferrum, PSU showed no rust in the opening minutes of the game, as Caroline Vonachen (Framingham, MA) scored only 1:06 into the contest. Junior Shannon Connerty (Nashua, NH) scored all of 51 seconds later to give PSU an early 2-0 lead after Jordyn Godfrey (Glenville, N.Y.) set up the play for Connerty.

Despite Ferrum scoring the next goal, PSU was able to rattle off five unanswered goals to give Plymouth a 7-1 lead heading into halftime. The five goals happened within less than ten minutes, and involved four different goal scorers, including Junior Captains Molly Gleason (Haverhill, MA), Amy MacDonald (Hull, MA) and Rachel Fistori (Medford, MA) while sophomore Emily Tilton (Cranston, R.I.) found the back of the net as well. 

By obtaining a 7-1 lead, the Panther defense, led by Senior Goalie Lorin Field (Hollis, N.H.), Allison Gonyea (Auburn, N.H.), and first year players Chandler Lemay (Narragansett, R.I.), Megan Lunetta (Plymouth, MA)  limited the pressure and shots that Ferrum was able to take throughout the game. Think about this; PSU limited Ferrum to only three shots in the first half, or one shot every ten minutes of game-time. How in the world are you suppose to play any better then that? With the defense playing the way it did today, not only does it give the younger players on the team a lot of confidence, but it goes to show that if the offense isn't able to find the back of the net, the defense will be there to bail them out. Of course, the players see room for improvement. "Our defense played well, we stuck to our game-plan," Captain Lorin Field stated after the game. "We have a couple of things to clean up on for our next game," Field added. 

Fortunately for PSU, both sides of the field were clicking extremely well, as the offense added nine more goals in the second half. MacDonald, Gleason, Vonachen, Godfrey, Connerty and Kaitlyn Wilder (Framingham, MA) were all able to score goals in the second period. With having so many different players being able to score in this offense, it is tough for defenses to lock down on one player. MacDonald, who had six points in the game to jump her up to 20th all-time in Women's Lacrosse scoring for PSU, said that "when our offense is relaxed and confident is when we put the ball in the back of the net." At the rate that MacDonald is going (averaging five points per game), she is on pace to score 90 points this season. 

PSU will be back at it, as they will face Meredith College tomorrow (3/19) night. Having back-to-back games isn't anything new for the Panthers, as they had back-to-back games last year (in which they won both, against the University of Southern Maine, and Fitchburg State). Look for Plymouth to start to gain some momentum before they head back up to New England, as they look to develop a winning streak in the early part of the 2014 season!