While squaring off against the Hawks of SUNY New Paltz on Thursday afternoon, the University of Redlands women's lacrosse team provided its second double-digit win in as many outings, taking this one by a score of 18-7 on Farquhar Field. The Bulldogs broke open an early tie with seven-consecutive goals to create a comfortable cushion en route to the non-conference victory.
After the teams traded early scores, the Maroon and Gray simply went to work, unleashing six unanswered goals to close out the first half in fine fashion. Freshman attack McKenna Tychsen (Park City, UT) found her offensive rhythm with four of her season-high five netters coming in the first 30 minutes of action. Junior midfielder Stephanie Garrett (San Diego, CA) orchestrated two of her goals with quality assists.
During the second half, the Hawks appeared to find new life by firing off a 4-2 run to start the period.
However, a productive timeout by Head Coach Suzette Soboti righted the ship to halt the opponents' rally, as the Bulldogs answered with a 9-2 run of their own, which included six-consecutive scores. Redlands gained a sweet combination to initiate this scoring spurt, as sophomore attack Dulce Moll (Mercer Island, WA) found junior midfielder Ellen Holt (Happy Valley, OR) to make it 10-5. About a minute later, senior attack Elizabeth Keilty (Yorba Linda, CA) connected with sophomore midfielder Breanne Rideout (San Diego, CA) for one of the Bulldogs' 11 assisted goals on the day. Freshman midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR) capped off the Maroon and Gray's six-goal streak within this rally by completing a second-half hat trick with 11:48 to go.
The Bulldogs uncorked three scores in the final six minutes to put the exclamation point on the win, with Moll contributing an assist or a goal on each of them. She finished with three goals and four assists on the day.
Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Gigja Hollyday (Aliso Viejo, CA) and freshman goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO) continued their splitting trend between the pipes, with Egan corralling six saves while facing 12 second-half shots.
Furthermore, Redlands racked up 32 ground balls to obtain possession, with junior defender Sam Keary (Mission Viejo, CA), junior defender Grace Martin (Portland, OR), and senior defender Robin Taylor (Poway, CA) picking up four apiece. Also, they each had at least one caused turnover due to their stifling defensive abilities.
Overall, the Bulldogs dominated the draw-control battle, registering a 19-8 advantage. Garrett hauled in a game-high eight, while Bjorndal snagged five.
Redlands (5-3, 2-2 SCIAC) returns to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action on Saturday, March 21, when it travels to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges to take on the Athenas at 1 p.m.