Despite being down three goals in the second half, the 14th-ranked Loyola women’s lacrosse team fought back to get the 12-10 overtime win over local foe Johns Hopkins on Wednesday.
In the Greyhounds’ 2015 home opener, they earned their first win of the season and extended their win streak at Ridley Athletic Complex to eight games. The determination for the Loyola team was clear, as they scored five straight second-half goals to grab the lead, and when Johns Hopkins tied it in the last 10 seconds of the game, the Greyhounds came out strong in overtime, scoring a pair of goals to seal the win.
Johns Hopkins entered the game with a two game win streak over Loyola, winning 11-8 in 2013 and 6-5 last season. The Greyhounds erased the hope for a continued Blue Jays’ win streak.
The local rivalry is not just fueled by the location but also by the fact that the Hopkins head coach, Janine Tucker, and associate head coach, Tara Singleton, both Loyola women’s lacrosse alumnae and both earned All-American honors while playing for the Greyhounds.
Senior Kara Burke put the Greyhounds on the board just 2:16 into the contest when she caught a pass from classmate Annie Thomas, scoring on a sidearm shot while falling to the turf. The assist from Thomas marked her 100th career assist, making her the first Greyhound and 50th player in NCAA history with 100 goals and 100 assists.
The Blue Jays answered with back-to-back goals in a 70-second span to take a 2-1 lead. Sophomore Haley Schweizer tied the game at 20:19 and freshman Emily Kenul was successful on a free position shot to put the Blue Jays ahead by one goal.
In the next minute, the two teams would go on a three-goal spurt that saw the game tied at 3-3 with 16:39 left to play. Burke scored her second goal of the game with 17:45 remaining in the first half. Schweizer matched that with her second goal of the game at 17:06. Junior Maddy Blakeman dodged through traffic to score a goal at 16:39 and tie the game.
Hopkins responded with another rally of back-to-back goals, this time from juniors Dene’ DiMartino and Jenna Reifler to grab the two-goal lead, 5-3. With 10:30 left to play in the first half, Loyola’s senior Hannah Schmitt answered back to cut the lead back down to one goal again, 5-4. Hopkins’ freshman CeCe Finney got the final say of the half when she took a low shot and got past Greyhound goalie junior Molly Wolf to make it a 6-4 game with 6:59 left to play.
Loyola came out of the locker room and started the second half just like the first, with another quick goal, just 1:58 into the frame. Senior Sydney Thomas scored on an assist from classmate Molly Hulseman at the 28:02 mark to cut it back down to a one-goal game again, 6-5. For the third time in the game, Hopkins countered with a pair of back-to-back goals.
Schweizer achieved her first career hat trick, scoring her third goal of the game at the 26-minute mark to put the Blue Jays up by two, 7-5. Thirty seconds later, DiMartino got her second goal of the game to put Hopkins up by three, the largest lead of the game.
The Greyhounds put on a display of determination as they scored three goals in just over three minutes to tie the game for the fourth time. Schmitt scored at the 22:28 mark, redshirt sophomore Katrina Geiger scored at the 19:39 mark, and Schmitt sandwiched in Geiger’s goal with another one of her own, her third goal of the game.
The next 14 minutes were scoreless as neither team could find the go-ahead goal.
Loyola was the first to break through with five minutes left to play when Schmitt found Hulseman for her second goal of the night, putting the Greyhounds up 9-8, their first lead since it was 1-0 at the beginning of the game.
One minute later, Thomas scored an unassisted goal to put Loyola on top, 10-8, the first two-goal lead all night for the Greyhounds.
A Loyola turnover would halt the Greyhounds’ momentum as Hopkins’ junior Josie George picked up the groundball and DiMartino would eventually score her third goal of the goal at the 2:20 mark.
At the time, Hopkins had scored six of its eight goals in pairs so it was only fitting that sophomore Alexis Maffucci followed up DiMartino’s goal with the game-tying goal with 8.2 seconds left. That would be the Blue Jay’s fourth time scoring back-to-back goals. Maffucci swatted the ball into the goal past Wolf in an ice hockey-esque motion.
In overtime, Loyola took the first two shots. A shot by Burke and VanThof hit the post but then a shot in traffic by Hulseman put the Greyhounds up, assisted by Schmitt, with 3:04 to play.
Hopkins came up with the draw on the restart but Loyola forced a turnover with 2:11 to play. Schmitt added an insurance goal on an open Hopkins’ net with 58.4 seconds to go, bringing the score to 12-10, which is what was needed for the Greyhounds to secure the win.
Schmitt led the Greyhounds with four goals on six shots and three assists, while Hulseman, Burke and Thomas each had a pair of goals.
Wolf finished with four saves in the win. Sophomore Maddy Lesher led all players and tied career highs of five ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Loyola will return to Ridley this Saturday as they face James Madison University. The game is slated to begin at 5 p.m.
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