The Hopkins women’s lacrosse team scored an impressive win at home on a day dedicated to the nine seniors on the roster. Fittingly, it was the seniors who took control of the game to lead the Blue Jays to a 12-9 victory over 13th-ranked Ohio State in the last game of both teams’ regular season slates.
The seniors were responsible for an astounding 10 of the Jays’ 12 scores and 13 of 18 total points tallied by Hopkins players.
Senior attackman Candace Rossi capped her regular season career with a flourish, notching a game-high four goals in the win. Fellow senior attackman Rachel Ballatori registered four total points with two scores and two assists.
The win stopped a six-game skid the Jays had been on and improved their overall record to 8-8. The Buckeye’s slipped with the loss to a final regular season mark of 10-5.
At first it seemed like the Buckeyes would extend Hopkins’ losing streak to seven games when they took an early 4-0 advantage in the first 10 minutes of the game. Gabby Capuzzi scored her 35th goal of the season off a dish from Alayna Markwordt to give her team a one goal lead just a minute and a half into play.
After a goal by Katie Chase, Capuzzi scored another, followed up by an extra-man strength goal by Cara Facchina to make the score 4-0 with just under 20 minutes remaining in the half.
Hopkins broke its opening scoreless streak at the 13:52 mark when senior attackman Colleen McCaffrey caught an assist from behind the net from sophomore midfielder Taylor D’Amore and netted her 38th of the year. The score kick-started a 10-1 run in Hopkins’ favor that covered the next 28 minutes of the game.
After McCaffrey’s score, senior midfielder Rachel Serio took advantage of an extra-man strength opportunity and buried a pass from Ballatori to cut the lead to two with 12:01 left.
An unassisted Rossi score, her first of the game, was followed up just 18 seconds later by a Marwordt goal for Ohio State to put the Buckeyes up 5-3. That would be their last score for nearly 25 minutes, as Ohio State did not find the net until the 14:23 mark midway into the second half.
Rossi tacked on two more goals, both unassisted, in the final six minutes of the period, including the equalizer just 12 ticks left to tie the score going into the locker rooms, 5-5.
McCaffrey kept the streak going in the second half, recording a free-position goal to give the Jays their first edge of the game, 6-5. A minute and a half later, sophomore midfielder Sammy Cermack sent one streaking past Ohio State goaltender Tori DeScenza to push the lead to 7-5.
Junior midfielder Courtney Schweizer then demonstrated great defensive prowess as she intercepted a Buckeye pass and took it the distance, running the length of the field. She located McCaffrey, who dished it to an open D’Amore, who quick-sticked it into the net for her lone score of the game.
Serio then scored once more at the 16:47 mark, 45 seconds after which Ballatori would cap the answerless scoring spree with her first goal of the day.
Despite the Lady Jays’ control, the Buckeyes still had some fight in them. Ohio State responded with a short 4-1 outburst that shrank the Jays’ edge to two goals with just under six minutes remaining.
Ballatori scored her second and final goal of the game off an assist from D’amore after the Buckeyes found the net for the first time in over 23 minutes.
Ohio State’s Cappuzzi then scored her third and fourth goals of the game in the less than a minute and a half, the second one coming off a free-position shot, to cut the lead to 11-8. Markwordt then took a Jackie Cifarelli assist and made the score 11-9 with 5:51 remaining.
Hopkins proved too overwhelming, though. Rossi ended the scoring with her 32nd goal of the season, the score coming with just under three-and-a-half minutes to play. The Blue Jay defense remained stout for the rest of the game to hold on to the win.
Six players scored for the Jays, four of them seniors. D’Amore broke the school’s Division I draw controls record, recording five on Saturday to up her total to 67; the previous high was 66.
Hopkins now awaits the beginning of the American Lacrosse Conference Tournament, which starts next week. The top-seeded Florida Gators will host the tournament. The sixth-seeded Jays will square off against third-seeded Penn State on Thursday at 7:00 pm in the quarterfinals.
