The 12th ranked Hopkins women’s lacrosse team lost to fourth-ranked Northwestern University last weekend on Homewood field, 18-8. This defeat marks the first loss of the season for the Jays who, as of the Northwestern game, stand 0-1 in the ALC and 4-1 overall. With the win, Northwestern moves to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference, with Saturday’s win being their third in a row.
Hopkins got off to a rather slow start, trailing 4-1 midway through the first half. The Blue Jays got back on track with back-to-back goals from senior Katie Duffey and freshman Jenna Reifler to pull within one. Junior Sammy Cermack dumped a pass down to Duffey and the senior buried her shot at 15:13 into the game.
Hopkins then got lucky with help from the Northwestern goalie when Reifler took a pass from freshman Dene' DiMartino to fire a shot that appeared to be going high.
Northwestern’s goal tender Bridget Bianco then tried to grab the errant shot, but ended up losing it in the goal. Just over a minute later, the Jays had the tie within their grasp when sophomore Jen Cook scored on the doorstep from a Taylor D'Amore pass, but the goal was waved off for a crease violation.
The momentum shifted greatly thereafter as a seven-goal swing by Northwestern blew the game open. The scoring spree spanned both the first and second half, including the final four goals of the half to give Northwestern the 8-3 halftime lead.
Erin Fitzgerald of Northwestern had a first-half hat trick with eight minutes remaining, while teammate Gabriella Flibotte scored two back-to-back goals in about a 90 second span to push the lead to four. Fitzgerald then closed out the half with an unassisted goal off a failed Hopkins clear with just 10 seconds on the clock, giving the Cats the leg up to end the half.
Northwestern continued their run to start the second half, scoring three goals in just over four minutes to take an 11-3 advantage. Junior Sarah Taylor ended the drought for the Blue Jays at 19:59 as fellow classmate Taylor D'Amore split a double team near the Hopkins bench and drew another one as she approached the cage. With some fancy passing, she slipped a pass to Taylor then scored on a quick-stick shot. Northwestern answered with four straight goals; they led 15-4 with 11:06 to play.
Taylor again ended a Northwestern run with a free position goal at 9:07. As seemed standard on the day Northwestern came right back with three straight from three different scorers to end their scoring at 18 on the day. DiMartino, sophomore Jenna Kasmarik and Cermack would close out the scoring for the day as Hopkins scored three goals in the final 63 seconds to end the game at 18-8.
Leading the Jays in goals for the game were Taylor and DiMartino with two goals each. DiMartino also had a team-high four points, including the first two assists of her career. She also controlled four draws on the day. D'Amore added a pair of helpers to extend her point streak to 26 games, while Cermack pushed her point streak to 23 with a goal and an assist. Senior Cosette Larash finished with seven saves in 42:16 of action. The Wildcats leading scorer was Fitzgerald with five goals, while Leonard added a hat trick and nine draw controls, a game-high. Bianco finished with nine saves in 55:35 of play to earn the win.
Taylor viewed the game as an opportunity for the team to improve and grow.
“We can use that game as a learning experience to help prepare for the next stretch of games against top ranked opponents," she said. We've had a good season so far with a really big win over Loyola. We came out a little flat on Saturday and I think Northwestern really came ready to play.”
With solid play so far this year, Hopkins has much to look forward to as season play continues into the heart of lacrosse season.
The Lady Jays returned to Homewood Field last night to host juggernaut Georgetown. The Hoyas took down the Blue Jays 15-8, bringing the team’s record to 4-2 on the season.
