Redlands Women's Lacrosse Battles through Semifinal Loss to CMS

Photo credit: Sam Keary
Photo credit: Sam Keary

The No. 4-seeded University of Redlands women's lacrosse team battled it out with the top-seeded Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday morning in the semifinal of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament.  Despite a tight first half, the Bulldogs came up short of the upset and lost by a score of 6-17.

The Maroon and Gray came out firing and scored the first goal of the game at the 28:16-mark of the opening frame.  After the Bulldogs thwarted an early CMS clear attempt, sophomore midfielder Hanna Morford (West Linn, OR) corralled a ground ball and immediately went to the Athenas' cage for the goal.

Junior goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO) made two huge stops to keep CMS off the board before Redlands made it a 2-0 game with another Morford score.

The Bulldogs' stifling defense continued to impress as junior midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR) and freshman defender Chelsea Sahami (Millbrae, CA) forced a pair of CMS turnovers.  Their persistence paid off, as freshman midfielder Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) converted a free-position shot on the other end to extend the visitors' lead to three with 21:56 remaining in the period.

Unfortunately for Redlands, this early deficit awoke a lion in the Athenas, who went on a 6-0 run to close out the first half.

The teams traded scores to start the second half, as Morford found an open senior attack player Dulce Moll (Mercer Island, WA) for Redlands' fourth netter of the game.

However, CMS continued to roll and eventually extended its lead to 11 goals, before Morford and Moll registered one score each for the Bulldogs in the waning minutes.

Egan finished the day with 13 saves in a valiant effort

Redlands completes the 2017 season with a 9-8 overall record and a 4-6 mark in conference.