Dillon Flanigan- Sports Editor
The women’s lacrosse team defeated NE10’s Saint Rose College Golden Knights, 14-6, as the Owls improved to 5-2 on the season.
“A really good team win against a team that we really had to beat this year,” Head Coach Kevin Siedlecki said. “The whole defense just stepping up to get the ball for us, and then the offense taking care of it and getting the goals we needed to win.”
After falling behind 3-0 in the first period, the Owls called a timeout. There was no new strategy, just the same plan that was practiced over the last week.
“A mantra this week with the team has been Hank Aaron’s line, like whatever is happening, you just keep swinging. Just keep swinging, and eventually you hit the ball again,” Siedlecki said. “We didn’t change anything. We just played it out for 60 minutes, and the way they got their lead, they weren’t going to maintain it.”
Attack Kirsten McIntire, a senior, scored the first goal for the Owls late in the first period. The university would score seven more goals in a row, and later padding their lead. McIntire finished the night with four goals, one in each period.
Fellow attack Alexandra Ruel, a graduate, also scored four goals, two in each half.
But McIntire and Ruel were not the only ones to carry the scoring. Attack Savannah Feinberg, a senior, scored three goals. Two came in the second and third periods while her final goal capped the scoring in the game with just over three minutes left in the game.
“We’ve been really working on this trying to tip individual players. We’ve been using a lot of plays to set people up for success as well as looking for the feeds inside,” Feinberg said. “We train to be unselfish. We look for the feed first before we try anything. We never force it, and we always try to move it. So, it’s really benefited us this year.”
Practicing for every situation is not always a bad thing. Some games rely on everyone to score, but this game relied on mainly three Owls. However, early in the third period, attacker Morgan Reilly, a junior, and Allie Palmer, a sophomore, scored once.
This win over the Golden Knights, was the fourth and final victory in Siedlecki’s coaching tenure. After this academic season, Saint Rose is closing its doors, citing financial losses and plummeting enrollment according to the local media.
Although it is speculation, the Owls had the luxury of a very deep bench. They played two thirds of the 30 players they had, while Saint Rose only had 13.
Siedlecki indicated that he has always seen the Golden Knights as a rival. He was coaching at the high school level with Kaitlin Gaghan when she took the head coach position at Saint Rose. Hired around the same time, Siedlecki projected as the program grew each year the Owls and Golden Knights would go on to do some great things.
