W.Lacrosse off to an undefeated 3-0 start

This past week, the Hopkins women’s lacrosse team steam rolled both Mount St. Mary’s College and Bucknell University on Homewood Field. Hopkins lit up the scoreboard, winning 18-5 and 19-4 respectively.

Against Mount St. Mary’s, junior attackman Taylor D’Amore got the ball rolling by twice dishing the rock to sophomore attackman Jen Cook for the first two goals of the game. Cook would go on to score her third and final goal of the day just a few minutes later with 17:47 remaining in the first half. With yet another assist by D’Amore, this goal gave Cook her first career hat trick, and Hopkins a commanding 4-1 lead.

From there, the floodgates would open as the Blue Jays would go on an 11-2 run, putting them up 14-3. D’Amore had a goal, five assists, and eight draw controls while junior midfielder Sarah Taylor had five goals on seven shots and two draw controls. Other key contributors on the day included junior midfielder Sammy Cermack who had a goal and four assists and senior attackman Katie Duffey who had six points, two groundballs, and two forced turnovers.

“I think our success offensively has come from a sense of comfort with who we’re playing with.” D’Amore said. “We are starting to read each other and anticipate how certain scenarios are going to play out.”

The Blue Jays offense ran on all cylinders, as they had 52 shots, including an incredible 40 shots on goal. In fact, Sarah Jane Leder, the goalie for Mount St. Mary’s had 22 saves herself. This impressive save percentage along with the 22 saves fell just short of the record for most saves by an opponent of Hopkins.

Other Blue Jay standouts against Mount St. Mary’s included freshman midfielder Dene’ DiMartino, who notched two goals and two draw controls, junior attackman Lauren Burke who fired in a shot on a feed from Katie Duffey for her first career goal with 8:23 remaining in the game, and freshman attackman Erica Matz who also scored her first career goal in the waning seconds of the game. Also of note was the dominant Blue Jay defense that allowed only seven total shots in the game, while forcing 25 turnovers.

On Saturday, the Blue Jays faced Bucknell and took immediate control of the game. The three Class of 2014 stars (Cermack, D’Amore, and Taylor) put on an absolute show, racking up a combined 11 goals and 10 assists. Once again, Cook scored the first two goals of the game, on assists from D’Amore and Cermack. From there, the Blue Jays would jump to an 8-0 lead and would never look back.

For the day, D’Amore had six goals and three assists, Taylor scored four times, Cermack had a goal and eight assists, and Jen Cook tallied her second hatty in as many games. Adding into the scoring mix were attackmen Katie Duffey, Jenna Kasmarik, Erica Matz, Jenna Reifler, and Maddy Aldave who notched her first career goal.

The Blue Jay defense once again starred, as defenders Monica Fischer, Octavia Williams, and Olivia Long had a combined 11 groundballs.

Also of note is the combined play of goalies Cosette Larash and talented sophomore KC Emerson who stepped between the pipes for the second half. The skilled Blue Jay duo each had three saves in 30 minutes of play. The Blue Jays have two legitimate goalkeepers who split time last year, clearly giving coach Janine Tucker options regarding how to best utilize them this season.

Regardless it was the play of D'Amore that grabbed the attention of all the spectators. At one point during the Bucknell game, D’Amore scored five straight times for the Blue Jays. With under a minute of regulation time remaining in the first half, she had a dazzling behind the back goal just inside the left post for her sixth goal of the day.

D’Amore, who was named ALC offensive player of the week for her eight points in the season opener against Old Dominion, managed to put up an even more successful week. In the two games against Mount St. Mary’s and Bucknell, D’Amore scored seven goals and nine assists. On the season, she has already accumulated 24 points on 10 goals and 14 assists.

“This should carry into our conference schedule because with each game and each practice we get more comfortable playing with together.” D’Amore said. “I’m excited for Loyola because it will be our first real test of the season. It should allow us to see where we are early on in the spring.”