Lincoln Plews
Senior Sports Writer
The women’s lacrosse team squared off against Oberlin College this past Saturday at John P. Papp Stadium. The Scots went in knowing they needed a win to secure their tournament bid, and they delivered with a 12-9 victory.
Fresh off of a 15-3 win over Ohio Wesleyan University last Wednesday, the Scots went into the game with a great deal of confidence. Oberlin came ready to play, however, jumping out to a quick 4-1 lead just seven minutes into the game.
The Scots gained control of the game before halftime, taking a 7-6 lead into the break thanks in part to a pair of goals from both Ellie Hudson-Heck ’16 and Clare Nelson-Johnson ’13.
One minute into the second period, a goal from Oberlin midfielder Grace Barlow evened the score at 7-7. The Scots struck back with a 4 goal run in the next ten minutes, including two more from Hudson-Heck and a goal each from Abby Szlachta ’16 and Shelby Stone ’15, to take the lead 11-7 with 19 minutes to play. Wooster managed to hold this lead for the rest of the game, relinquishing two more goals and scoring one to bring the final decision to 12-9.
The Scots beat out both Allegheny and Oberlin by one game for the last spot in the NCAC tournament, and have now made 8 consecutive tournaments under head coach Elizabeth Ford.
The team finished the regular season with a record of 12-4 (5-3 in NCAC), and played top-seeded Wittenberg University yesterday after press time. Wittenberg defeated the Scots 19-13 in their previous match-up on April 10.
The winner of yesterday’s game will take on the winner of the match-up between second-seeded Kenyon College and third-seeded Denison University tomorrow at 5 p.m. The game will be hosted by the highest remaining seed, which means Wooster will be on the road if they advance to the final.
Nelson-Johnson led the team in scoring on the season, tallying 40 goals, with Hudson-Heck (38) and Eliza Perry ’14 (33) trailing just behind. Perry also dished out the most assists with 27. Defensively, Molly Sennett ’15 led the team with 29 caused turnovers on the year.
The Fighting Scots expect to be good again next season, graduating just four seniors: Nelson-Johnson, Kari Martyniak, Lauren Vargo and Shawna Ferris.
Every player who scored in double-digit goals on the season will return except for Nelson-Johnson. The defense will need to recover from the losses of Martyniak and Vargo as well as Ferris, who is currently listed as the lone goalkeeper on the roster. She will most likely be replaced by Isabel Perman ’16, who stated seven games this season.
Additional reporting by Travis Marmon.