The Elizabethtown College women’s lacrosse team took on Amherst College last Thursday, March 21. Unfortunately, they did not maintain the lead against the No. 12 team from Massachusetts. The game ended with the score in favor of Amherst, 18-8.
The game started off well for Etown, setting a tone with junior Michele Grosso scoring her tenth goal this season. Grosso gained a goal with an assist from her teammate senior Becky Porter about three minutes into the first half of the game. Amherst didn’t hesitate a second as Marta Randall put their team on the board with her first of a game high seven goals 21 seconds after Grosso’s account. Amherst then scored the next three goals, putting them ahead 4-1. Etown’s sophomore attacker Leigh Anne Flounlacker continued her scoring streak this game, earning her eighth goal this year. This then sliced the score to 4-2 with a little over 16 minutes left in the half. Flounlacker then used Porter for an assist for her second goal of the game, bringing the Blue Jays within one.
Unluckily that was the closest the Blue Jays would come to the Jeffs for the rest of that game. Amherst outscored Etown 7-1 for the rest of the first half, which gave them an overlooking 11-4 lead into halftime. “We really need to work on possessing the ball and stop throwing the ball away,” Flounlacker said. Junior Shelby Bruno came into play in the second half for the Blue Jays to relieve senior Rachael Waldman, the starting goalie for the game, who had one save in the first 30 minutes. Bruno recorded seven saves in the second half. “We knew going into the game it was going to be tough. We never gave up and still fought hard regardless of the score,” Bruno said. Amherst took the advantage in draw controls throughout the game, tallying 20 over Etown’s six. This put the pressure on the Jays’ defense and made it harder for Etown to possess the ball on offense.
Flounlacker ended the game with a team high four goals, bringing her total to 11 goals in the three games she has played. Grosso had two goals, while Porter and sophomore Andrea Russo each scored once for the Blue Jays. Porter added four assists to give her 16 total for the season. The game ended with a win for Amherst.
Both teams came out with their best but unfortunately Etown did not come out on top this time. “We have a lot of upperclassmen and a lot of young talent so I think we’re going to do pretty well once we get into our conference games,” junior Natalie Hrynkiewicz said. Hopefully this will be taken as a chip on the shoulder for the women’s lacrosse team to motivate them to win the next game and others to come in the future.