Elizabethtown College’s women’s lacrosse team ended their 2015 season on a very positive note with an 18-7 win over Gwynedd Mercy College last Wednesday night. Two important factors to this win were E-town’s duo of Addie Stang, sophomore, and Dana Robidoux, junior. Stang had six goals and Robidoux added seven points.
Robidoux said, “The team did really well, we all worked together and finally executed some things that we have been trying to work on all season. Our transitions looked really smooth and we stayed composed with the ball on the attacking end.”
Stang is now the 13th player in the Blue Jay women’s lacrosse history to have scored 50 goals in one season. She finished in a 10th-place tie with 51 goals. Her first goal in the second half was her 50th of the year.
It only took 27 seconds for the Jays to get on the board with a goal by Robidoux off an assist from first-year Carly Thompson, who won the opening draw.
“It’s always a total team effort. Movement on attack has to be generated by all seven players and we always had good movement in order to make lanes to drive to goal.” Robidoux said, “Also, the team held me accountable in practices and games, which made me play my hardest.”
The dynamic duo of Stang and Robidoux took over during the first half. Robidoux’s first goal this game was her 22nd of the season, creating a new career-high. She went on to score three more goals before the half was over. Stang had four first half goals herself and lead the Blue Jays into an 8-4 lead at half.
Etown recorded nine of their first 10 goals after halftime with seven different players.
Thompson got her 20th and 21st goals of the season, while twin sister Katie Thompson set up goals for C. Thompson and Robidoux. C. Thompson ended the game with two goals and an assist, while K. Thompson had one goal and two assists.
During the Blue Jays’ second half of playing, there were goals made by Stang, Robidoux, first-year Kirstin Quilty, junior Adriana Bertolino and sophomore Jessica Binnig.
Gwynedd Mercy had two goals in a row before the game ended. However, E-town capped the scoring as senior defender Emily Young earned her first career goal at the 1:47 mark.
Elizabethtown outshot Gwynedd Mercy 37-21 and won 20-of-27 draws: six from both Robidoux and C. Thompson. Stang led all players with 14 shots, secured six ground balls and four draws along with causing four turnovers.
Stang led the Landmark Conference in goals and ranked second in points and ground balls. Robidoux and C. Thompson were top five in the league in draw controls.
Stang said, “Going into next season we will need to continue to improve our game IQ, our biggest problem this year was not athletically but instead our young age and with time this will get better.”
The Blue Jays season has improved by four-wins since the 2014 season. They also suffered three losses by four goals or less. E-town averaged 7.3 goals per game from last season to this and allowed almost three goals per game less. They showed improvement up and down the field. The women’s lacrosse team is graduating two seniors with the rest of the roster returning for the 2016 season.
“This season was a definite improvement from last year, however there is still much room for improvement. We are still a young team and while our to seniors will be greatly missed; we are fortunate enough to have numbers in other positions to continue to rebuild. I am excited to see what future seasons hold for us!” Stang said.
Robidoux said, “Compared to last year, this season was a big improvement and step in the right direction, but we are still a growing program. Next season we will be even more competitive in the Landmark Conference and I definitely see us making it to playoffs.”
