WOOSTER – The Kenyon College Ladies lacrosse team clinched a share of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular-season title after Wednesday night’s 15-6 victory over the College of Wooster Fighting Scots.
Kenyon, now 12-1 on the season and 6-0 in the conference, last won the NCAC regular-season title in 2013.
The Ladies wasted little time putting themselves on the board with Caroline O’Neil finding the back of the net just 1 1/2 minute into the game. It appeared that the Fighting Scots tied the game up with 10:12 left in the first quarter, but a Wooster player received a yellow card on the play, nullifying the goal and allowing Kenyon to regain possession. The Ladies took advantage of the break, using the person-up situation to attack on offense, and O’Neil found Julia Losey for a goal to give Kenyon a 2-0 lead.
Kenyon employed an aggressive trapping defensive scheme that forced the Fighting Scots to make a lot of passes, and the pressure seemed to pay off, creating forced turnovers and offensive opportunities. O’Neil benefited from the strategy, scoring her 41st and 42nd goals of the season to extend the early Ladies’ lead. Though the Fighting Scots were able to score their first goal of the game before the quarter concluded, Ella Murphy got one back for Kenyon, and the Ladies left the period with a healthy 5-1 advantage.
Kenyon struck first again in the second quarter on another Losey goal, this time on a feed from Tatumn Eccleston. Wooster answered, but Kenyon pushed ahead when Alex Tiatia shot the ball into the net off another assist from Eccleston. While Wooster was able to score once more to make it 7-3, it could not stop Losey on the other side of the field. The junior punched in two more goals in the quarter, one assisted by O’Neil and another by Eccleston, to put Kenyon ahead 9-3. Before the quarter closed, O’Neil and Eccleston each added one more goal, giving the Ladies a comfortable 11-3 halftime lead.
In the third, Tiatia scored her second goal of the game five minutes into the quarter. Wooster then scored two goals sandwiching a Maggie Garner score that was assisted by Tiatia to make it 13-5.
The fourth quarter saw Losey notch another goal on a free-position shot, and Eccleston slotted in one more to further cement the Ladies’ advantage. The Fighting Scots mustered little resistance, scoring their lone goal of the quarter in the final two minutes when the game was already well out of hand.
In the title-clinching effort, Losey led Kenyon with five goals, while O’Neil chipped in four with two assists. Eccleston had a team-high three assists and also scored two goals, while Tiatia had two goals and one assist.
The Ladies will now look to secure an undefeated conference record as they await their final regular-season game at Oberlin College on Saturday.
