The Pomona-Pitzer women’s lacrosse team began their SCIAC season with tough losses to University of Redlands and Chapman University to make their overall record 0-2.
On Wednesday, the Hens traveled to Redlands to take on the Bulldogs for their first meeting of the season. Redlands jumped to an early lead and never let go, winning 12-6. After a halftime score of 7-3, the Sagehens struck for two quick goals in the second half to bring the game to 7-5. Redlands answered back with two of their own, and the score remained that way until the last 10 minutes, when the Bulldogs closed out the game. Jana London PZ ’14 led Sagehen scorers with three goals, while Logan Galansky PO ’14 added two, and Aubrey Douglass PZ ’16 rounded out the scoring with a goal of her own. Douglass’s goal came off a brilliant feed from Galansky that helped reenergize the Sagehens. London’s three goals leave her with five on the season along with Galansky.
Last Saturday, the visiting Chapman Panthers overcame a first-half deficit to beat the Sagehens 11-8. The Hens started out strong from the opening whistle. For the first 30 minutes, they looked great, dominated both the scoreboard and on-field play, and headed into the locker room with a promising 6-4 lead.
After the break, Galansky opened the second half with a fabulous individual effort to make the score 7-4. However, Chapman proceeded to score the game’s next six goals, each from a different member of the team, to take a 10-7 lead with under 10 minutes remaining.
True to form, Galansky answered the Chapman surge with a timely goal to cut the lead to 10-8 with seven minutes remaining, but it proved too little, too late. Chapman was able to respond with one final score and some well executed keep-away, killing off the remaining time on the clock and coming away with the victory.
A distinct shift in the run of play occurred after the half.
“The main difference was our transitions,” London said. “We got in our heads after they started to score. The connection we had amongst the players on the field started to suffer. First half, we worked as a strong unit, connecting passes. But by the second half, we just forgot our basics with Chapman close on our tails.”
During the match, Chapman had a 15-6 edge on draw controls and played alarmingly good transition defense to hold P-P to only 11 clears in 23 attempts.
P-P was led by three goals from midfielder and team captain Galansky in the losing effort. Other standout performances for the Sagehens came from London, who scored two goals, and goalie Casey Leek PZ ’13, who had a busy night with 11 saves between the pipes.
Although the contest ended on a frustrating note for the Hens, Galansky remained positive about the performance on the field and made it clear that, as captain, she did not expect team morale to be seriously affected by this first lost.
“While we definitely wanted to win our first game, I was really impressed with how our team played, especially in the first half,” Galansky said. “We have a ton of talent, and I think that as we work on finding our stride as a team, we’re only going to get better. I have high hopes for this season and I’m very excited for our next game.”
The Sagehens will be back in action on Saturday against Occidental College at 2 p.m. on Merritt Field.