The women’s lacrosse team out-scored Wesleyan 9-6 in an important NESCAC game last Saturday and then capped off the weekend by defeating Wheaton by a resounding 17-2 score on Sunday at Ryan Field. Yesterday, the team crushed the University of Southern Maine 17-4 in Portland. The Polar Bears improved their record to 8-5 (4-5 in NESCAC play).
Yesterday, seniors Betsy Sachs and Jordan Smith led the blowout with four and three goals, respectively.
“USM is an important regional game and it has national tournament implications, because we have to do very well outside the league since we haven’t been doing as well in the league this season as we have in previous seasons,” Sachs said before the contest.
The women started off last weekend strong against Wesleyan, leading at the end of the first period by a score of 4-1. Smith accounted for all four goals in the opening round of play. Bowdoin pushed the lead further with a powerful run at the start of the second period. Two more goals by Smith, coupled with goals from Betsy Sachs ’14, Lindsay Picard ’16 and Megan O’Connor ’16 allowed the Polar Bears to take a 9-4 lead with just ten minutes left to play. The Cardinals were able to score twice more in the dwindling moments of the match, but it was too little, too late.
“We have been working on making smarter feeds into the middle for the past few weeks, and we definitely saw this pay off in the Wesleyan game,” said Smith. “We were able to attack the zone and find the openings, which gave us a lot of opportunities that we were able to capitalize on.”
On Sunday, the Polar Bears celebrated their Senior Day. The women conceded the first goal of the match to give Wheaton a 1-0 lead, which the Lyons would not hold onto for long. The Polar Bears scored 10 unanswered goals over the next 20 minutes. Going into the intermission, Bowdoin led the match 10-2, and then continued their offensive pressure in the second period.
In a dominant second half, the Polar Bears managed to sneak seven shots past the Lyon’s goalkeeper without allowing any themselves. Sachs and O’Connor led the scoring with four each, while Molly Popolizio ’14 led the team with three assists.
“This weekend was definitely important for us in terms of our confidence as well as our standing in the NESCAC,” said Popolizio. “We have been working hard to play well for a full 60 minutes in our last few games. This weekend, we didn’t let up our intensity throughout the games and continued to play well cohesively on the defensive, midfield and attacking ends.”
Smith and Sachs lead the Polar Bears on offense this season with 34 and 33 goals, respectively. Popolizio is currently leading the team with 19 assists. On the defensive side, Sachs and Popolizio lead the Polar Bears with 18 ground balls apiece.
The team returns to action when they host Tufts on Wednesday in the regular season finale.
The Polar Bears have already qualified for the first round of the NESCAC tournament; their match against Tufts next week will determine their seeding.
“All of our NESCAC games against top opponents have been very close games this season,” explained Sachs. “We are confident going into the playoffs because we know we can play with those teams.”
“We are planning on traveling for our first game of NESCACs, and I think that having that mentality going into the weekend will make us even more focused,” added Popolizio.