Lacrosse seniors walk away happy

by Blake Whitney
Staff Writer

The Ohio lacrosse team saw its season come to an end Saturday with a 12-6 loss to No. 14 Ohio State.

But Ohio’s (9-6 overall, 1-5 American Lacrosse Conference) seniors were not thinking about the score.

As the freshman class that started the Ohio lacrosse program when it was revived in 1999, this senior class has more ties to the program than most.

“When we started we were playing in mud, we had six games, we had just enough players to field a team, and now to come to where we’re playing in a conference, playing ranked teams, and we’re actually giving them a run,” defender Megan Sanders said. “I’m really proud of us. It’s a great feeling to know we’ve come so far.”

The Bobcats finished sixth in the seven-team league, while the Buckeyes (11-4, 4-2) tied for second. Vanderbilt is the league’s champion.

Attacker Lynz Keys led Ohio with three goals, while Ohio State attacker Tracey Bounds led the Buckeyes with five.

Ohio midfielder Lindsey Hart, the nation’s leading scorer with 4.00 goals per game, had one goal.

Ohio State coach Sue Stimmel said her team’s top priority was to shut down Hart.

“We knew we had to take her out, and she’s an excellent player,” she said. “(Lately) we’re playing really good team defense, so it’s hard for one person to come and take on our defense.”

Attacker Alyssa Trocher and Keys each managed first-half goals, but Ohio State led 7-2 at halftime.

“I don’t think we handled the ball all that well in the first half,” Ohio coach Anne Moelk said. “Even when we weren’t being covered we were basically not taking care of the ball.”

But like last week’s game against then No. 15 Penn State, the Bobcats started a rally in the second half, as Hart and Keys each added goals to pull within 7-4 at 16:02. But Ohio State scored 32 seconds later and was never threatened.

Moelk said the six-goal loss is a moral victory for Ohio. Ohio played the Buckeyes each of its four years and has inched closer each time. The Buckeyes won the 1999 match-up by 20 goals.

Stimmel said her biggest concern in preparing for Ohio was convincing the Buckeyes that the Bobcats could play with them. She said the Ohio program has “made outstanding progress.”

“She had every right in the world to be worried,” Sanders said.

Next season, Ohio will have its first lacrosse season without seniors like Sanders. But the Bobcats return nearly all of their scoring in addition to goalkeeper Jen Cassidy, who ranks in the nation’s top 20 in save percentage.

“It always hurts to end on a (losing) note like this because now you have an entire year before you can redeem yourself,” Keys said. “Hopefully next year we can beat some of these guys.”