Women's Lacrosse Weathers Early Deficit, Beats Albright
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - page 2|
As if taking her cue from the time remaining on the scoreboard during warmups, Mother Nature decided it was time to come out and play some lacrosse.
About 10 minutes before game time, the sun was obscured and snow and freezing rain started to fall as the Muhlenberg women’s lacrosse team finished warming up for its game against Albright.
“It was like, ‘Oh there’s a lacrosse game today? Let’s add some snow in there,’” laughed junior Michelle Certosimo of the turn in the weather. “But we’re used to it. We play in bad weather during practice so it’s just like another day for us.”
Although the Mules (2-1) were down 2-0 in the opening minutes, they quickly rallied and scored the next eight goals of the game in just over 10 minutes to take an 8-2 lead with 14:20 to play until halftime. And as Muhlenberg added to its goal total, the weather gradually improved.
“Usually, we’re a second-half team and lately during practice we’ve been focusing on not being that way,” explained Certosimo. “So when we got down, we wanted to keep our heads up and just focus on trying to score.”
Certosimo had four goals and three assists, including the tying goal on a free-position shot, to help Muhlenberg reach 21 goals for the first time since 2010. The Mules have surpassed the 21-goal mark just three times in program history.
Senior Molly Davin also had a huge hand in the win and the high offensive output. She set a career high with eight points on seven goals and an assist. She scored three of the Mules’ goals during their eight-goal rally and also added two in the final 3:22 before halftime.
Albright (3-1) opened the second half in an almost identical fashion to the first. They scored two goals in just over two minutes but it was too little, too late as Muhlenberg had already established a 10-goal cushion at the half.
“I think we had composure and even when we got down, we held the ball really well on the attack and moved it around well,” stated Certosimo. “If we dropped the ball, we worked our butts off to get it back. And I think we did really well on defense as well – if a girl was cutting in, we double-teamed her and had composure with that too.”
The Mule defense was a real team effort with seniors Alexandra Franck and Jill Freda and freshmen Amanda Orlak and Arielle Sherman each tallying two caused turnovers. Sherman added three ground balls, and Franck and freshman Casey Armstrong had two each.
Armstrong was also a force on the offensive end, scoring a goal and to go along with a team-high four assists. She also had three draw controls.
Sophomore Stephanie Umbach led the team with five draw controls and added four goals and three assists, bringing her season total to 22 points in just three games.
Muhlenberg held a 36-22 shot advantage over Albright and has now won two home games in a row, with four more on tap in the next two weeks.
“I think playing at home really gets us pumped up,” added Certosimo. “We’re always jumping around in the locker room before the game. It’s really exciting for us.”
|
