W. Lacrosse demolishes Villanova, 19-3

With the fate of their season hanging in the balance, the Blue Jays Women's Lacrosse team rebounded from their homecoming loss to Maryland and defeated the Villanova Wildcats 19-3 Wednesday night at Homewood Field behind strong performances by senior attacker Erin Wellner, who had five assists, and sophomore midfielder Heidi Pearce, who scored five goals.

The game put the Blue Jays back on a winning track and allowed the team to continue in their quest to reach their first NCAA Tournament appearance.

Since the Blue Jays are back on the winning track, they know that they will have their work cut out for them if they hope to reach the post-season.

"All four of our remaining games need to be wins for us," said junior attacker Liz Holland, referring to the stretch of the season that began last night against Hofstra in New York, and will end with the Blue Jays' final regular season game of the year, in which they will host Cornell.

The Blue Jays established their dominance early in the game against the Wildcats and never looked back. Senior attacker Erin Wellner assisted on each of the first three goals and managed five assists on the day, and senior attacker Jamie Larrimore scored three of the Jays' first five goals en route to a 5-0 Blue Jay lead nearly halfway through the first half.

Villanova finally got on the board with a goal by Cecily Pierce, but by that time the Wildcats were already trailing and only managed to push the score to 5-1. Hopkins was able to take control once again to score six more goals while Villanova was held scoreless.

The barrage of goals put the Blue Jays in a commanding 11-1 lead. On their 6-0 run before the half, the Jays benefited from strong performances from several key players once more.

Pearce and junior attacker Meghan Burnett each scored two goals, Larrimore scored one, and Wellner added two assists and scored one goal to push the Jays lead to 10 goals at the half.

The second half held in store much of the same, as the Jays added on to their lead and cruised to a lead that began at 11 goals at the start of the half and never fell shorter than that number.

Pearce scored her fourth goal of the contest to get the ball rolling in the second half, and Wellner followed just over a minute later to increase the Blue Jays' lead to 12 goals. The Wildcats scored a goal of their own with 22:35 remaining, but by then the game was clearly out of reach.

Even so, following the Wildcat goal, Hopkins went right back to scoring as they embarked on their second 6-0 scoring run of the game.

Sophomore midfielder Kate Barcomb, Wellner, and senior attacker Christy Peterson each scored goals before Pearce added her fifth and final goal of the game to make the score 17-2.

Holland scored by virtue of a Larrimore pass and Erin Riordan scored the final Blue Jay goal to make the score 18-2.

The Wildcats ended the scoring with a goal by Lindsey Syphard to make the score to 19-3.

That score would last until the game ended.

In a season that began amid high expectations, it has been an up-and-down year for the Lady Jays. After starting slowly by losing their first three games, Hopkins has since recovered by then winning eight of their last 10 games.

"I think we have finally found chemistry within all three different parts of our game: defense, midfield and attack. We've found who works best in each area," said Holland.

Now the team that still has attainable aspirations to reach the NCAA Tournament realizes that time is running out on their regular season, and they must continue their winning ways or they will not find themselves playing in the NCAA's.

Following the Blue Jays match up with Hofstra that took place in New York yesterday in a game that ended too late to be included in this edition, Hopkins will have only three games remaining on a tough schedule in which they will host all of their remaining opponents: George Mason, Towson, and Cornell.

The players recognize that winning all of those games is the only way to ensure that they have done all that they can to merit an NCAA birth.

"All these games need to be wins for us," says Holland. "I think we have a really good shot though because we're starting to work really well together as a team.