RWU women’s lacrosse pulls win over Gordon College

Photos courtesy of Kayla Ebner

Andrew Wuebker

Sports Editor

In a matchup of two of the top three women’s lacrosse teams in the Commonwealth Coast Conference, one would figure a close game is in store.

Tuesday afternoon wasn’t the case.

The then third-placed Roger Williams University women’s lacrosse team made short work of formerly second-placed Gordon College with a convincing 15-2 victory on Tuesday afternoon, giving RWU their fourth straight win.

“I think that we have really started to come together as one,” said junior Kaelin Hogan. “Each day we are trying to improve to be a championship-caliber team. Our defense comes up with big plays, which leads the attack to getting the goals we do. Our unity is really starting to show on the field and on the scoreboard.”

Led by the offensive duo of Hogan and senior McKenna Everding once again, who had seven goals and five assists between them, the Hawks didn’t give the Fighting Scots much of a chance.

Hogan scored three of her four goals in the first half en route to a 6-2 halftime lead. Roger Williams struck first 20 seconds into the game when junior Carly Martin took a sweet dish from Hogan for a score. Gordon answered just over two minutes later to tie it 1-1, but Hogan scored three straight times to pull the Hawks away.

“We spend so much time in practice preparing for plays and formations that other teams could throw at us,” Hogan said on how she’s able to consistently penetrate into opposing defenses. “The defense is constantly pushing the attackers and vice versa. When it comes to game time we are more than prepared and that’s what gets us to find the holes on the opposing team’s defense.”

Through a balanced offense and stout defense that left Gordon without many scoring chances, Roger Williams cruised to a 6-2 halftime lead. However, the Hawks showed some more in the second frame, scoring nine unanswered goals.

Among the other Hawks to contribute were a pair of juniors and sophomores. The juniors, Martin and Paige Byrne, had one goal and one assist each, while sophomores Marin Owens and Emily Stoeppel had two goals and two assists each. Freshman Shayne Rivard punched in two goals as well.

A distasteful loss against CCC-leading Endicott College in the tail end of March seems like all but a distant memory for a squad that has the conference title on their minds. With their fourth straight win on Tuesday against a strong opponent in Gordon College, Hogan is hoping the team’s best defensive outing is a sign their best LAX is yet to come.

“With each game our team has one mindset and that’s to win. Before today’s game Gordon did have the better record, but we’ve been working hard at practice to prepare and work on our weaknesses,” she said. “It feels very good to win against a strong competitor like Gordon, and we hope to continue our winning streak. Our goal is the championship again and we know how hard we need to work in order to get the same results as last year. Losing to Endicott was tough, but it opened our eyes to the weaknesses we’ve been working on in practice to fix.”