 "Photo: Bethany Yamrick")
 "Photo: Bethany Yamrick")
A season that saw the Wilkes University women’s lacrosse team reach unprecedented heights has come to an end. The Lady Colonels fell to conference foes Lycoming and Widener last week, barely missing out on the playoffs and ending a record-breaking season. But the season was not without some milestones.
The Lady Colonels slim playoff chances were hanging in the balance when they met Lycoming at Ralston Field last Wednesday for crucial MAC conference tilt.
The opening few minutes looked as though the MAC battle was going to be just that, a full fledged whoever-has-the-ball-last-wins battle. That was until the other team in blue and yellow caught fire and never looked back.
With the score tied 1-1, Lycoming ripped off an 8-1 run over the rest of the first half until the Colonels scored two goals before the halftime whistle blew to cut the lead to 9-4.
The second half looked much like the first half with Lycoming scoring early and often. Any hopes of a comeback were dashed almost instantly by the Warriors, who went on a playoff-crushing 10-2 run to open the second half to take a commanding 19-6 lead. A lead they would never relinquish, edging the Lady Colonels by a final of 22-8.
"I'm not really sure what happened because they [Lycoming] really weren't a better team than us," said Sophomore Brittney Hodnik. "I think there were a lot of us who just had bad games at a really unfortunate time, and the offense wasn't producing and the defense started to break down. It was just unfortunate that those two things happened simultaneously."
The first milestone was reached, however, when Hodnik, who led the Wilkes team with four goals and an assist, reached the 100 point plateau, becoming only the second women’s lacrosse player in the university's history to achieve such a feat.
Melissa Polchinski added two goals and two assists for the Lady Colonels on the day, while sophomore Kat Edwards chipped in with two goals of her own.
On Saturday, the Lady Colonels laced it up for one final go hosting Widener on Pink Day, showing the team's support for breast cancer awareness.
But the Pride stole momentum from the get-go, netting the first goal of the game only 53 seconds in. Wilkes would get on the board quickly thereafter as Kat Edwards netted her first goal of the game. But that would be the closest the Lady Colonels would get as the Pride rallied off six consecutive goals to take a commanding 7-1 lead, and entered halftime with an 11-4 edge.
The second half would see the Pride add insurance goals in a hurry, cementing the victory with six of the first seven goals to start the second half to stretch their lead to an insurmountable 17-5 advantage. The Lady Colonels would chip in two more goals, but fell to the MAC rival 19-7.
But it would be the second straight game a Wilkes lacrosse player would go over the century mark in points, with Melissa Polchinski registering her 100th point of the season on a goal halfway through the first half. She became just the third Wilkes womens lacrosse player to garner such a feat only a game after teammate Brittney Hodnik accomplished the same.
Polchinski led the way for the Colonels with four goals on the day while Hodnik chipped in with one goal and three assists.
Wilkes ended its season with a 9-8 overall record with a 4-7 record in conference play, both of which are new highs for the relatively new team. And on a team that has no seniors and is chock full of freshman and sophomores, these new records may take up space in the record books for one short season.
"I was thinking about how crazy it is to potentially have every girl returning next season," said That's unheard of! I think that as a team we learned that you have to work hard through the entire season, so hopefully we'll build on this season and do even better next year."
Be the first to comment on this article! Log in to Comment
You must be logged in to comment on an article. Not already a member? Register now