It is hard to imagine that a University of Western team that plays Canada’s national sport, would get very little coverage and attention. Now if you are thinking that this is about the Men’s and Women’s Varsity Hockey teams, you would be wrong, sort of. Officially, Canada’s National Sports are Lacrosse and Hockey. Lacrosse is the national sport of summer in Canada, and Hockey is the national sport in Winter. Lacrosse, is one of the many sports at Western that are not highly featured in advertising and marketing, yet, if one were to attend a game, you would see that Lacrosse is intense, physical, fast-paced, and highly entertaining to watch. Sportsmanship plays a large role in both the playing of the game and in the rule books. Many times, players will collide or slash one another, and will either apologize or check with the opposing player to see if they are unharmed on the play. If there is a penalty or flag, defensive players must play behind the offended player and also give them room in front to begin the play out of the penalty. The physical nature of the sport alone, would make any normal human being feel some animosity towards their opponent after an infraction. Lacrosse players, typically will show no sign of negative feelings, and will chalk the collision or violation up to being a part of the game, no more, no less.
Undeafeated heading into today's game
Entering Sunday’s action at Mustang Field, the Western Women’s Lacrosse team was undefeated after their first two games of the season, after participating in the Early Bird tournament last Sunday in St. Catherine's, Ontario. Western went 2-0 on September 10th, including a victory in their second game which was against the Laurier Golden Hawks 7-5. That very same Laurier squad stood across from them at center field on Sunday morning at 8:30 AM. Western had to be prepared to play two opponents on the day, Laurier and then the Guelph Gryphons at 1:45 PM. Playing more than one game in a day, is commonplace according to Co-Head Coach Kristen Stafford. The league is divided into West and East, a neutral site is picked, and each team will play at that site twice on the same day. Sunday’s games were at Mustang Stadium in London, Ontario, home of the Western Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse teams.
The way that this game started off, it was looking easily like the score was going to be higher than the last encounter between these two teams. Laurier attacked early and dominated the play in the Western zone for the first 5 minutes of the game, and was rewarded for their efforts with the game’s first goal. Western came right back and answered with a goal to tie the game, virtually on the next possession. The two teams traded goals and when the score was 2-2, Golden Hawks goalkeeper Alanna Macdonald, arguably made 2 of the biggest saves of the game, as the score could have very easily have been 4-2 for Western. Western went up 3-2 and if it were not for a big save by the Mustangs’ goalie Claire Palmer on a penalty, the game could have been tied at 3.
A gorgeous spin move by a Laurier player out of a crowd for a goal, followed by 2 more goals made the score 5-3 for the Golden Hawks, their largest lead of the game. 2 straight goals by Western’s Heather Pearson, followed by 2 more goals by #19 for Western Hayley Liske, made the score 7-5 for the Mustangs heading into the halftime break.
Second half started strong with defense
The game had a much more deliberate, defensive pace to start the 2nd half. After a quick goal out of the break by Hayley Liske, the next goal was not scored until 10 minutes had passed by. Laurier pulled to within 2, 8-6. The Mustangs and the Golden Hawks traded goals with Western scoring first, taking a 9-7 late lead. Laurier scored back to back goals with less than 3:30 minutes left in the 2nd half, tying the game at 9-9. This game, with its frantic pace with less than 3 minutes left, surely was headed for overtime. Laurier had other ideas, as the Golden Hawks scored to take a 10-9 lead with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Now it became a game of keep away as Laurier ran out the clock and handed Western their first loss of the young season.
This was a tough loss for the Western Women’s Lacrosse team. These two teams were evenly matched and their previous encounter could have just as easily ended with a similar result, but Western was able to hang on for the victory in that game. No rest or time to lick their wounds, as the women bounced back incredibly later that day to beat the Guelph Gryphons 11-3 later on Sunday afternoon to improve to 3-1.
