The No. 17 Hopkins Women’s Lacrosse team opened the season with a milestone 11-8 victory against the Marquette University Golden Eagles at home this past Friday. The win was the 400th in program history, and the 250th in Head Coach Janine Tucker’s career. The result puts Hopkins at 1-0 to start the season, while causing Marquette to fall to 0-2.
The Golden Eagles got off to a hot start, scoring the game’s first three goals, giving them a 3-0 lead at the 16:06 mark. Additionally, while the Lady Jays were able to get six shots on net during this time, Marquette Goalie Sarah Priem turned them all away. Following the third goal, the Lady Jays took a timeout.
“It was a good chance to take a deep breath and realize how much we had left in the game and that shots would eventually go [in],” junior midfielder Haley Schweizer said.
That time-out would prove to be a pivotal point in the game.
“We talked a lot about how to improve our communication as a team both on the defensive and offensive ends of the field and [how to] work towards capitalizing on some of the opportunities that we were presented with,” junior defender Maddie Bodden said.
Following the timeout, the Lady Jays came storming back. Senior midfielder Dene’ DiMartino opened the scoring for Hopkins, beating her defender and putting a shot past Priem to cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to two. Just 72 seconds later, freshman attack Miranda Ibello capitalized on a beautiful downfield pass from sophomore midfielder Emily Kenul to score her first career goal, and bringing the score to 3-2. Ibello would then tie the game at the 10:58 mark with a free position goal.
The Golden Eagles would briefly regain the lead at the 1:58 mark on a goal by freshman Hayley Bass, but Hopkins would quickly counter after sophomore attack Shannon Fitzgerald received a pass from Kenul off the reset, and dodged the Marquette defenders to score from up close, and tie the game at four apiece going into the half.
Marquette would then open the second half by scoring two goals, giving them a 6-4 lead at the 27:29 mark.
Indeed, the Lady Jays would rally, cutting the deficit in half after Schweizer scored following a give and go exchange with senior attack Jenna Reifler just under a minute after Marquette’s second goal of the half.
Kenul would then give the Lady Jays their first lead of the game at the 17:59 mark, following back-to-back goals separated by just over 30 seconds.
Hopkins would not relinquish this lead for the rest of the game and would increase their lead to 8-6 following another goal by DiMartino, assisted by Reifler, at the 16:52 mark.
The teams would then trade goals over a three-minute period, with Hopkins goals coming from DiMartino and Schweizer, both coming off free position shots. DiMartino’s strike would give her a hat trick, the 26th of her career. The score would remain 10-8 from the 10:42 mark until Ibello completed her hat trick with an empty net goal with just 1:56 left to play, sealing the 11-8 win for the Lady Jays.
Hopkins’ 11-goal effort was aided by a strong performance in goal by junior Caroline Federico, who made 11 saves in the win, many from close range and off free position shots. She notched a save percentage of .579. Junior defensemen Nevi Fernandez and Claudia Flister each caused two turnovers on defense as well.
“We adjusted matchups a little on [defense] as well as experimenting with different people taking the draw coming out in the second half down two,” Schweizer said. “Changing shot angles and shooting low was a major key.”
“The first game told us that we can stay composed and will not stress of break under stress if we go down by a goal or a few goals,” Bodden said. “We did a good job of staying composed throughout the game no matter what the score was and I think that will really help us throughout the season.”
Schweizer and DiMartino both spoke about the need to work on shooting, but the team is ambitious moving forward, with Bodden, Schweizer and DiMartino all expressing a desire to make a deep NCAA tournament run.
“Taking it game by game is huge and if we focus on that there’s no reason we shouldn’t be playing all throughout May,” DiMartino said.
Following the win, the Hopkins Athletic Department released a video congratulating Coach Tucker on her 250th win. It featured commentary from men’s lacrosse Coach Dave Pietramala, assistant coaches and former player who expressed what they felt made Tucker such an incredible coach. All of them touched not only on Tucker’s role in building the program to what it is today, but also on her creating a family environment on the team and being a role model to her players both on and off the field.
