Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
No. 4 West Chester rolls over Ship
WEST GOSHEN » A veteran, experienced lacrosse roster is quite rare these days in college athletics as we’re a year removed from a spring season that was cancelled just when it was getting started.
But the West Chester women sure look like an exception.
With eight seniors or graduate students in the starting unit, the Golden Rams are back into the national rankings with a perfect 7-0 mark following Saturday’s 16-8 victory over visiting Shippensburg at Vonnie Gros Field. West Chester advanced to the NCAA Division II title game in 2019 (falling to Adelphi) and got in just two matches in 2020 before the global pandemic forced a cancellation.
“It’s nice to have those fifthand four-year kids coming back and playing well,” said head coach Ginny Martino.
“We have more returners than I thought we’d have, which is an advantage more than anything,” added All-American defender Molly Reinhart. “We are experienced and know what it’s like to play for a national championship.
“We know what we want and we are very motivated.”
When asked what exactly this team wants, the grad student didn’t hesitate before saying: ““We want to win the national championship.
“After losing in the final in 2019, we all realize how much that hurt,” Reinhart continued. “We have eight that played in that game, and even though we didn’t really play last season we are picking up where we left off.”
Now 7-0 in overall and in the PSAC, WCU has outscored its opponents 122-43 so far. The Rams raced out to a dominating 13-2 lead at the half on Saturday, but then took the proverbial foot off the gas a bit the rest of the way. Martino wasn’t happy about that.
“I don’t think we came out overly confident in the second half, we just didn’t take care of the small things,” she pointed out.
“I don’t know if the players enjoy it after a game like this, when they get yelled at and they look up at the scoreboard thinking I’m losing my mind, but they know it wasn’t a good second half for us. They know that we still have some stuff to work on.”
Ranked fourth nationally, West Chester looked in midseason form as it finished the opening half with eight goals in a row. Another grad student, Tatum Altman, spearheaded the rally with a goal and two assists. She forced a turnover and found fifth-year teammate Kelly Baumann for a goal that made it 8-2.
Baumann (two assists) and senior Trisha Baud (two goals) then helped keep things rolling until the intermission. Baud also had a dominant stretch earlier with two goals and an assist in a three-minute span to give WCU an early 5-1 lead.
“If you start off well, you are setting yourself up for a great game. You have to ride on that confidence,” said Baud, who finished with four goals, all in the first half.
The Raiders (2-6, 2-7 overall) scored six of the final eight goals with the outcome already decided. And even though it was an understandable late lapse, Martino wasn’t pleased.
“Even though we put in a lot of subs, our players expect more of themselves,” she said.
“We definitely had a hiccup in the second half,” Baud acknowledged. “We had a lot of new faces coming in, and that’s something we have to learn from. We are only as good as our weakest link.
“We had a great first half and I don’t think we were back on our toes. Maybe we got comfortable at halftime. It’s a lesson learned.”
The final statistics were lopsided with the Rams gaining a clear edge in shots (45-15) and shots on goal (2910). Five of Shippensburg’s eight goals came on either a free position or a man-up situation, which was noticed by the team’s defensive anchor.
“It seemed like almost every goal (Shippensburg) had we gave them,” Reinhart said. “They were capitalizing on our mistakes. But those are thing we can correct.”
Baumann wound up with two goals and two assists, junior Lindsay Monigle chipped in three goals and an assist, and freshman Hannah Stanislawczyk added two goals and an assist.
Not quite halfway through the regular season, there seems to be common current running through this WCU program, and that is a sense of trying to rectify some unfinished business.
“We have high expectations. Right now it’s about reaching our ability,” Baud said.
“This could be a special group,” Martino added. “It’s just putting a full 60 minutes together and for our players understanding that they can do it.”