It was clear from the start that the weather would set the women’s lacrosse team back. Now that they have finally gotten out of Jones Fieldhouse they can start working on their full game plan instead of offensive and defensive drills.
But even as they have been improving, they have been met with some heavy losses, dropping their first four games to give them a record of 0-1 for the conference and 0-4 overall.
The weekend before Spring Break the home game aganst Indiana University of Pennsylvania was cancelled due to field conditions, but the team was able to travel to their opponent’s venue for a scrimmage.
“The weather definitely plays a role in it. If we could have gotten outside earlier we could have worked on midfield stuff like transitions from defense to attack and from attack to defense,” head coach Deb Ranieri said.
“We weren’t able to work on those things until we got down to Florida,” she added referring to the team’s trip, to the Wide World of Sports training system in Orlando over break.
They played Western Connecticut University, Oswego and Colby, losing 17-5, 15-4 and 23-0 respectively. Colby is ranked in the top 20, and the score line of that game doesn’t reveal the progress made over the break.
Wednesday’s contest against Wooster, the team’s first conference game, showed progess as well.
Wooster came out strong, scoring their first goal within two minutes. As Oberlin continued to be frustrated by dropped balls and unsuccessful transitions, Wooster scored eight unanswered goals.
With two minutes to go in the half, senior Briana Quinn scored a goal, her second of the season.
After the halftime break, the Yeowomen seemed more composed as they controlled the ball more often and exerted persistent pressure on Wooster. They held Wooster to just three more goals while scoring another of their own, coming from sophomore Anna Ialeggio. Ialeggio led the team last year in scoring and is currently leading with five goals.
“We actually held on to the ball offensively more than we have in any other game,” Ranieri said.
The team is also aided by the defensive prowess of sophomore Sarah Pilzer, who was named newcomer of the year last year in goal.
“Sarah’s doing a really nice job for us in goal,” Ranieri said.
But since over half the team had never played before this season, they will continue gaining experience as they face Wittenberg on Saturday.
“Pretty much the whole season will be a growing experience,” Ranieri said.