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<h1>Women's lacrosse repeat as champions</h1>
<h3>Rival Denison beaten 12-11 in grand season finale</h3>
<B>by Jeff Glickman and Alexandra Mack</B><P>
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<p>Repeat chances, repeat champs. The women's lacrosse team avenged their only conference loss of the season with a 12-11 victory over Denison University on May 3 to clinch the conference championships.
<p>Saturday, in the semifinal against Ohio Wesleyan University that was a rematch of the week before, junior Cecily Beane and captain senior Anne Ewens each scored three goals. The Yeowomen beat OWU at Kenyon College 15-12.
<p>"It was one of the best victories OC has ever accomplished despite the obstacles," coach Mindy Manolovich said.
<p>Against Denison, senior Katherine Roberts was on fire. She scored seven goals and recorded six groundballs. She exhibited great ball-handling skills and organized the attack in both games. The senior has been crucial to the success of the team and she will be sorely missed next year. Ewens also knocked in five for the win.
<p>The team finished its season on an eleven-game winning streak.
<p>"We played the best sixty minutes of our career. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to break their strengths and capitalize," Manolovich said.
<p>After falling behind 6-3 at the half, the team changed strategy and reversed their fortune.
<p>"We put Katherine on the draw and wound up with the next five possessions which led to goals," Manolovich said. "We were patient on the attack."
<p>The team scored three straight goals. Smart decisions in the last two minutes of the game secured the 12-11 victory.
<p>The women's lacrosse team's season started off slow with four losses to open the season including a 19-8 throttling by Denison to begin conference play.
<p>The team slowly began to gel by beating Allegheny College 16-2, but only narrowly escaped with a 8-7 win versus the lowly College of Wooster. The team was without key defensive first-year Katherine Lanouette who was sick in the van and her team took the first half to wake up as they struggled to adapt to play without her.
<p>The season then kicked into high gear and a small team of eleven starters and only two subs began to gel. After the narrow win at Wooster and a few key conference wins against lesser Conference foes such as the Kenyon College Ladies and Allegheny College, the Yeowomen increased the level of their play.
<p>The team really stepped up with their play as the competition increasingly got tougher. On April 14 and 15 the team took a road trip east, where they escaped a nailbiter at Manolovich's alma mater, Lynchberg College with a 14-13 OT win and a 14-7 thrashing of Bridgewater College.
<p>Out of the eight teams in the conference, four Oberlin players were chosen to the All-NCAC first team and two made second team. To add to these achievements, Roberts was chosen as the Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
<p>Senior Amy Kremen was chosen to play Midfield and has scored forty four goals this year. Roberts was also chosen at Midfield racking up 51 goals for the year. Beane was chosen for her Defense. Senior Alysia Oakley was chosen as first team Goalie with an impressive .500 percent save average, blocking and allowing 135 goals.
<p>The second team included two more Oberlin players of the same caliber. Senior Atsuko Sakurai was chosen for Attack, scoring 14 goals this year. Senior Anne Ewens was chosen for midfield and has scored 37 points this year to match her 20 assists.
<p>The games and good times shared by this team will be remembered especially well by the five graduating seniors on the women's lacrosse team. Ewens, Oakley, Roberts, Sakurai, and Kremen have all made great contributions to the team and will be sorely missed next year.
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<p>Photos by Amy Kremen and Zach Fried.
<p> <p>
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<hr><font size=+2><center><b><nobr><tt>T H E O B E R L I N R E V I E W</tt></nobr></b></center></font><hr>
<center><P>Copyright © 1998, <A target=top href="../Default.html">The Oberlin Review</A>.<BR>Volume 126, Number 24, May 22, 1998<BR>
<p>Contact us with your <a target=_top href="http://www.oberlin.edu/~ocreview/feedback.html">comments and suggestions</a>.</center>
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