The University of Redlands women's lacrosse team roared out to a 5-0 lead early in Wednesday's non-conference showdown against the Sewanee (TN) Tigers and never looked back en route to an 11-7 victory. Senior midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR) carried the Bulldogs' offensive effort with a seven-goal outburst in the win on ALS Awareness Night on Farquhar Field.
Redlands came out firing and scored three of four opening goals on successful free-position shots by the 18:35-mark of the first half. After sophomore attacker Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) initiated the solid start with her goal, Bjorndal unleashed three-straight scores, with junior attacker Kelsey Ruhl (Seattle, WA) providing the assist on the second netter of the night. The Bulldogs capped off the 5-0 start when junior midfielder Hanna Morford (West Linn, OR) found the back of the net after receiving a dime of a pass from Bjorndal.
After Sewanee pulled one back, Redlands quickly made it 7-1 with back-to-back scores in less than two minutes. Ruhl found an open sophomore attacker Charly Walter (Bethesda, MD) in front of the net for a nice combination play with 14:07 remaining.
However, the Tigers made a goalkeeper switch at the 13:55-mark of the first frame, which created more of a challenge for the Bulldogs' offense in the remainder of the game.
The teams traded goals over the next 12 minutes, as Morford and Bjorndal fired off netters for the Maroon and Gray's 9-3 halftime lead. Senior goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO) came up with five saves during the first half to keep the Tigers off-balanced in their attack.
During the second half, the tides slightly turned against the home team, with Sewanee scoring the first three goals of the period to make it 6-9 with 19:12 to go.
Less than five minutes later, Redlands stretched its advantage back to four when the Ruhl-Bjorndal scoring recipe succeeded again.
With six minutes remaining, Bjorndal hauled in her 11th draw control and immediately found the back of the net for the Bulldogs' final goal of the game.
Defensively, junior defender Alexis Pound (Washington, DC) and sophomore defender Chelsea Sahami (Millbrae, CA) played a huge part in minimizing the Tigers' offensive success, as they combined for nine of the team's 17 caused turnovers in the game. Pound also snagged a team-high six ground balls in a fine showing.
Overall, Redlands converted five out of eight free-position shots, while Sewanee went 0-for-6.
The Bulldogs (5-5, 2-2 SCIAC) head to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday, March 24, for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) showdown against the Athenas.
