The West Chester University Women’s lacrosse team began the week holding a 6-6 record and looking to continue to improve on what has so far been a successfull season. Matches against Gannon University and Seton Hill University sat ahead for the Lady Rams in the next week, with hopes of two victories in their hearts.
First up came Gannon University on a beautiful Wed. afternoon. Gannon entered the game with a 6-5 record, with a few decent wins under their belts. WCU has struggled as of late with two tough losses coming against Lock Haven University and Mercyhurst University. The Rams looked to get back on track and continue in their winning ways on Wed.
Jess Henderson got the start in net for the Rams, hoping she could improve on a nine-goal let up against Lock Haven. The Rams did not wait long to begin their attack, as Erin Eckert struck first two minutes in. Eckert has had an impressive season so far, she is second in scoring for the Rams with 21 goals on the season as of Wed.
The Rams were next to strike again on a free position shot from Ashley Pyle, her sixth goal on the season. Three minutes later, sophomore sensation Hannah Cowan found the cage on her 29th goal of the season to give the Lady Rams an early 3-0 lead.
One minute later, Gannon found their first score on a Christie Valentine goal past Henderson. There was no let up from the aggressive Rams, as Cowan fired right back with another goal. The Rams lead 4-1. Eckert joined in on the fun again, added her second goal of the match, 5-1 Rams.
After a Gannon timeout, the Rams were back at it, with Cowan and Pyle both netting goals to give WCU the 7-1 lead. Kelsey Gumbert and Dina Cifelli both added goals that were split by a Gannon goal, but the Lady Rams fired back again with goals from Caroline Kuchinsky and Jordan Heidelbaugh just before halftime. West Chester entered the break with a commanding 11-2 lead.
The second half proved to not be as much of an offensive explosion for the Rams, but still a solid half from both sides. Henderson made second five second half saves and allowed to past, while the Rams added five more goals. Eckert continued her great day adding two more goals while Pyle, Heidelbaugh and Cowan all added another goal of their own all before the 10-minute mark. Gannon added their last goal in the last 10, but it did not matter as the Lady Rams marched on to a dominant 16-4 win.
West Chester dominated across the statistic board. Shot totals were lead by the Lady Rams 30-19 and shots on goal 25-15.
Next up for the Lady Rams was a tough matchup against Seton Hill. Seton Hill was 9-4 coming in, however, all four losses were from other PSAC teams. West Chester was 7-3 and 4-3 in PSAC play coming in.
After being 1-1 for the first 10 minutes of the game, Seton Hill took over on a barage of goals. To be exact Seton Hill scored five goals in a nine minute span. Emma Simmers and Emily Fagan had four of the five goals during this nine minute span.
Going into halftime, West Chester was trailing 9-2, which is the biggest defecit West Chester had faced all sesaon. The two goals for West Chester in the first half were scored by Dina Cifelli and Hannah Cowan.
The second half was alot more even, with West Chester even winning the half, 8-6. Unfortunatley, with the big hole that they put themselves in they were not able to bounce back, or even scare Seton Hill in the second half. Everytime that the Lady Rams would score, Seton Hill would answer right back. The final score was 15-10.
The leading scorer for the Rams was once again Hannah Cowan, who had five more goals, in her remarkable sophomore season. For Seton Hill Simmer led with five goals as well. Seton Hill is now 10-4, as other teams around the PSAC are starting to realize they are ready to compete.
As for West Chester, they now fall to .500 in PSAC play, as they will take on Shippensburg on Tuesday at home. Shippensburg is 7-5, winning three of their last four games. West Chester will need to turn it around, as they have been in the PSAC championship game seven of the last eight years. If they want to continue that success, they will need to turn it around as quickly as they can.
AJ Arcaini is a second-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at AA788494@wcupa.edu