Women's lacrosse dominates conference

Team has wins over Denison, Earlham, and Wittenberg

The Women's Lacrosse team secured their top-seed ranking in the NCAC championships Thursday with their decisive 15-4 victory over reigning North Coast Athletic Conference champion Denison University. The victory was an important psychological, historical and season win for the team that is becoming one of the most successful teams in Oberlin athletics history.

The team also added conference wins against Wittenberg University and Earlham College last Saturday and Sunday.

Now number one in the NCAC, the team is the first Oberlin women's lacrosse team to remain undefeated in regular conference play in the history of the program. They also broke a 12-year team losing streak to Denison in regular conference play.

"It was absolutely beautiful lacrosse," senior Jessica Resnick said of the game. "It was some of the best lacrosse we have played this season."

Coach Mindy Manalovich said the victory came in part from the careful attention the team has given to fundamental, detailed goals. She said the constant improvement of the way the team works together let them dominate Thursday's game.

Their domination came from all over the field as they out-played the Big Red in categories like draw controls and ground balls turnovers. Mandalovich said she felt before the game that it would be decided on those kinds of transitional possessions.

Several players had particularly outstanding performances; junior Katherine Roberts broke an Oberlin record of season assists, Kate Williams won 12 of Oberlin's 20 draw controls and goal-keeper sophomore Alysia Oakley had a save percentage of 65 percent. Senior Beppie Berry also added five more notches to her 44 season goals. She is the NCAC leading scorer and last week's NCAC athlete of the week.

Coming off two handy wins over Wittenburg and Earlham last weekend the team was a little nervous about playing perennial powerhouse Denison. Resnick said the game was the first one she had nervous butterflies before.

The challenge was good for the team however. "We were really excited to play a tough team," Resnick said.

Junior Marissa Kowalczuk said the nervousness didn't come from overconfidence or being unprepared. "We didn't know how Denison would come out against us," she said. Kowalczuk said the team went into the game thinking the victory rested on coming out on top of Denison psychologically.

Oberlin opened the game with quick offensive action, moving ahead 6-0 before Denison hit the scoreboard. Resnick said the team was careful not to step down their intensity during the game however. "[Denison is] the kind of team that never gives up," she said. At the half Oberlin was ahead 12-3.

Kowalczuk said Oberlin's defense closed down the Denison offense by playing consistent team defense. She said Denison played disjointed lacrosse, relying on a few top players to carry the team." They tried to rely on their fast-break strength but our defense stopped them," she said. "They were so frustrated."

Both Resnick and Kowalczuk said the team's victory also came from the intensity and focus Oberlin played with. "We had more heart and were totally psyched to be out there playing lacrosse," Kowalczuk said. "We just played out hearts out. We knew we could do it."

Oberlin's strength as a team, strong skills and intensity were also demonstrated in their games last weekend. On Saturday Oberlin shut out Wittenburg 19-0 and completely dominated play. Wittenburg had no shots on goal in the second half. The shut-out is the second for the Yeowomen this season, setting another Oberlin record.

Sunday's game was against Earlham, the team Oberlin is likely to face in their quarter-final game next week. The Yeowomen trounced the Quakers. The Oberlin women kept Earlham to eight shots on goal in the game which Oberlin won 22-1. In the Earlham game Oberlin's 22 points were spread out between 12 players. The Yeowomen dominated from the outset, scoring two goals within 28 seconds.

Manalovich said both games were good opportunities to slow down the game and work on improving fundamentals of the game like continuity passing, turnovers and team possessions.

Keeping the team's intensity and level of play up is important to Manalovich regardless of the team they are playing. "Don't drop to their level," she said. "Instead of a team being terrible and scoring on them a lot we can work on other aspects of our game."

Kowalczuk agreed that the games were good preparation for Thursday's match-up. "They became a good practice for this game," she said.

The Yeowomen will now move into post-season play as the top seed in the NCAC. After the quarter-final game on home turf next week they will face either Kenyon or Wooster in the semi-finals on Friday. The final is Saturday. Kowalczuk said one of their goals for the tournament is to play each game like it is the final championship.

So you think you can guard me, huh: Here Jessica Resnik and Junko Kobayashi show Earlham how the game of lacrosse is supposed to be played. (photo by Zach Fried)