The Hopkins women’s lacrosse team traveled up to Philadelphia this past Saturday to do battle against the St. Joseph University Hawks. Reeling from their overtime loss to Hofstra the week prior, the Jays faced a tough challenge against St. Joe’s, who were coming off four consecutive victories.
Senior attackmen Mackenzie Heldberg spoke on the team’s change in focus as they continue to learn from their past games.
“We’ve really been focusing on playing a full game and learning from our previous games which I think is something that helped us get the win on Saturday,” she said.
Hopkins came out firing from the opening whistle but couldn’t turn their shots into goals. Within the first two minutes, the Jays rung shots off the goalpost twice and sailed one wide to kick off an afternoon contest full of offensive firepower.
The Hawks took advantage of the second shot off the goalpost and turned it into some offense of their own. After a successful clear put St. Joe’s in Hopkins’ territory, junior Sam McGee found sophomore Lauren Figura in front of the net and Figura’s ensuing shot found the back of the net to give the Hawks the opening lead.
McGee extended the lead to two just 15 seconds after the opening tally. St. Joe’s junior Taylor Newman-Farr won the subsequent draw and moved the ball down the field to her classmate who followed with her fourteenth goal of the season.
Barely a minute later, Hopkins senior midfielder Eva Klaus stopped the bleeding with a goal of her own, but St. Joe’s would respond just ten seconds later with another goal off of the draw to re-establish their two-goal lead. The two teams would trade goals back and forth over the next eight minutes, with attackmen junior Aurora Cordingley and Heldberg each contributing a goal for the Jays to move the score to 4-3.
Heldberg’s score kicked off a three-goal run that gave Hopkins their first lead of the afternoon. Cordingley followed with her second goal of the day to knot the game at four apiece, and junior attackman Shelby Harrison came through with back-to-back goals in just 39 seconds to put the Jays ahead by two with eight minutes left in the first half. St. Joe’s would respond by way of McGee’s third goal of the day to cut the Jays’ lead to one, but Hopkins’ senior attackman Maggie Schneidereith notched the last goal of the opening half to give her team a 7-5 lead going into the half.
The Hawks repeated their hot start from the first half with a goal in the first 32 seconds, but unlike in the first half they would not be able to hold off the Hopkins offense for very long. Harrison earned a hat trick just a minute and a half later and brought her team’s lead back to two goals. That lead would stand for just over a minute before the Hawks’ junior attackman Stephanie Kelly launched a shot that found the mesh to cut the lead to one once again.
Cordingley proved her prowess on both sides of the ball after the following faceoff with a strong defensive stand that forced a turnover and gave her the chance to make her way into the St. Joe’s zone. The Hawks fouled Cordingley on two separate efforts to the net, giving the junior a pair of free position shot attempts. Her second opportunity on the free position shot was turned away by St. Joe’s senior goalie Mikala Davis, but Cordingley rallied to win the ball back and fire a shot at the net for yet another goal.
Continuing the back-and-forth nature of the second half, St. Joe’s senior Sarah Platt forced a Hopkins turnover and cleared the ball out of their zone to put the Jays back on the defensive. Some solid movement by the Hawks gave Figura a shooting lane, who scored her ninth goal of the season and put the score at 9-8.
Heldberg took it upon herself to give the Jays some insurance in the hotly contested game. Cordingley recorded her fifth point of the day with her second assist to the senior attackman and Schneidereith took advantage of a Hawks’ turnover to find Heldberg and give Hopkins a three-goal advantage with 12:31 left in the matchup.
Those insurance goals proved to be important for the Jays as the game neared a close. Davis stopped a Heldberg shot and passed the ball downfield to put the momentum back in the talons of the Hawks. St. Joe’s took some time to work through the Hopkins’ defenders and senior Bridget Cerciello capped off the possession with a shot into the back of the net to cut the lead to two.
Schneidereith teamed up with Heldberg again as the senior duo answered the St. Joe goal just a minute later. With 7:52 remaining, the Hawks issued their final goal of the game to move the score to 12-10 in favor of the Jays. Hopkins worked to extend their lead and rifled three shots that Davis kept out of the cage, but sophomore attackman Claire Mills hammered the nail in the Hawks’ coffin with 2:21 left on a free position shot to solidify the Jays’ eventual 13-10 victory.
The win featured several strong performances by the Hopkins’ attackmen, including three finishing the day with hat tricks. Heldberg led the way with four goals and an assist, trailed by Cordingley’s three goals and two assists and Harrison’s three goals. Schneidereith also racked up four points on the day with a goal and a trio of assists. She became the seventh player in the program’s Division I history to record 200 points. On the defensive end, junior goalie Kathleen Garvey impressed in net with 12 saves on the day for her third double-digit save outing of the season.
Heldberg expressed her satisfaction with the team’s performance and her excitement for the rest of the season.
“I think the game was a hard-fought win against a great team,” she said. “Moving forward, we are super pumped and excited to continue to grow as a team and continue to strive to reach our full potential. This weekend starts Big Ten conference play, so it’s always an exciting part of our season that look forward to.”
Hopkins moves to 4-3 with the win and improves to 4-0 all-time against St. Joe’s.
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