By Justin Paley
Before the season, Pride women’s lacrosse head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said she expected her veteran team to perform well.
So far, the Pride is exceeding expectations, improving to 3-0 with a 9-8 victory over the No. 9 Loyola College Greyhounds on Sunday. It was the first win for the Pride over a top-10 team since defeating ninth-ranked Yale University in 2002. The Pride can start 4-0 for the first time since1985 on Saturday when it battles Cornell at 1 p.m. at James M. Shuart Stadium.
Junior midfielder Becky Thorn scored the game-winning goal with 12 seconds left after the Pride blew a 6-1 lead. The Pride won a crucial draw control and sophomore attack Kim Hillier connected with Thorn, who put the ball in the back of the net to give the Pride the victory.
This came after Loyola’s Kate Filippelli scored her third goal, tying the game at 8 with just over a minute left.
“This team is playing with a lot of confidence and playing as a team,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We have a lot of different players producing on the offensive end. We’re playing as a solid defensive unit causing teams to turn a lot of balls over and taking care of it to get ball into offensive end.”
Besides scoring three goals, Thorn added nine draw controls and three ground balls. Thorn moved to midfield this season after playing her first two years at attack.
“We’re looking for the total package from her, not just goal scoring,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “She does a great job on defense in the transition game. We’re trying to take her focus off of scoring goals and more so, being total team player for us.”
Based on the first half, the game did not look it would be close. The Pride offense dominated early on. Senior attack Jill Wienecke scored 49 seconds into the game on a free-position shot and nine seconds later, Thorn scored to give the Pride a 2-0 lead.
The Pride pushed the lead to 5-0 with 18:25 left in the first half on goals by Hillier, Thorn and junior attack Catherine Guerriere. Senior attack Jen Maget extended the Pride lead to 6-1 with 16:31 left in the first half.
However, Loyola’s defense stifled the Pride the rest of the first half and closed the first half on a 4-1 run as the Pride led, 7-5, at halftime.
As it has done the first two games, the Pride switched goalies at halftime, replacing freshman Maisie Osteen with senior Lisa Papa.
“Lisa came into the game in the second half and showed leadership and experience, coming up with a bunch of big saves when the game was on the line,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. Papa got the victory after making six saves.
Despite the Pride’s best start since 1985, Klaes-Bawcombe said the Pride cannot look too far ahead. “We’re trying to take it one game at a time,” Klaes-Bawcombe said.
“Beating a traditional program in Loyola gives us a tremendous amount of confidence but it’s still early in the season and we’re hoping to keep up the ability and control and possession we’ve been doing and looking forward to remainder of season.”