While much of West Chester was sunbathing on spring break, the No. 7 Golden Rams opened their 2012 season with four consecutive wins over Holy Family, Queen’s (N.C.), with two conference wins over East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock this past week.
Coming off a win against Holy Family on March 6, West Chester (4-0, 2-0 PSAC) traveled to Queen’s University of Charlotte (4-5) for a non-conference game, triumphing with an 18-11 victory last Sunday afternoon.
The momentum carried over on Tuesday after a 19-6 triumph over East Stroudsburg University in both schools’ PSAC openers.
The Rams also began a battle against Lees-McRae on Thursday which was cancelled due to inclement weather with four minutes in the half and a 15-1 advantage over their competitors. The game will not be made up.
Junior Jamie Dolan made a memorable start scoring a career-high eight goals on 10 shots against the Royals on Sunday.
Dolan finished with a natural hat trick and three consecutive unanswered goals in a four-minute span. Her performance earned her the first weekly PSAC athlete of the week title this season.
“Our coach has us think of personal goals before every game and I always think of a couple things I really want to strive for in each game,” Dolan said.
Erin Oczkowski also finished with a hat trick, while Lauren Glassey tallied four goals. Theresa Giunta, Brittany Long and MacKenzie O’Keefe each contributed one goal.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, the Royals’ Brittany Phillips decreased their deficit to 5-4, but Giunta and Oczkowski fired back-to-back goals to end the half 7-4.
Queen’s regained some control in the second half to nearly tie the score at 8-7 when O’Keefe notched in her goal and Dolan tallied two for a 10-7 lead with 20 minutes remaining in play.
Sophomore Jess Henderson (2-0) made four saves in the net while Queen’s Chelsea Lancashire took the loss with 11 saves.
After the game cancellation at Lees-McRae, the Golden Rams opened their first home game of the season with a 19-6 conference victory over East Stroudsburg (1-3, 0-1).
The Warriors opened the contest with an early goal, which was quickly upped by Tori Dugan who added two goals five minutes into the half.
Oczkowski put up five goals, while Glassey added four assists and one goal. Dolan and Nicole Pyle each contributed hat tricks, while Stacey Pellechia and Julianna Jochym each added a goal and Jacki Patterson added an assist.
Sarah Ginn led the effort for the Warriors with four goals, but the team lost control, trailing 11-3 by half time, and eventually succumbed to a seven point loss.
Henderson made eight saves on 14 shots, while ESU split time between Amanda Simms for the first 44 minutes and Katie Zollo for the final 16. Simms was credited with seven saves allowing 15 goals, and Zollo made one and allowed four.
West Chester returned on the road to visit Slippery Rock (2-3, 0-3) on Saturday to elongate their winning streak with a 14-4 PSAC victory.
Nicole Pyle registered a hat trick while Dugan and Glassey each contributed two goals.
Pyle and Dugan’s goals both contributed to the 10-1 advantage the Rams earned before the second half, inhibiting the Rock from recovering from the deficit.
The Rams notched in four more goals in the second half to finish off the game for the 72nd consecutive regular season conference win over Slippery Rock.
Henderson was credited with nine saves for the Rams, while Slippery Rock’s Natalie Crenshaw and Elizabeth Byrne split the time in the cage making 11 saves and one save, respectively.
The Golden Rams seek to continue their perfect record in their match against Bloomsburg. The 2012 PSAC preseason poll that ranked West Chester No. 2 to Lock Haven ranked Bloomsburg No. 7.
“It is obviously nice to have a high ranking, but we cannot take any teams lightly, especially this year. There are teams coming out of the woodwork this year and having some big wins so I look at every game as a threat,” Dolan said.
The Rams will visit Bloomsburg to take on the Huskies in a conference match at noon on Sunday.
Brynn Dougherty is a fourth-year student majoring in economics and finance with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at BD670913@wcupa.edu..