This past week, the sixth-ranked West Chester University Golden Rams women’s lacrosse team continued their unbelievable play as they finished the regular season with an undefeated record. West Chester ended the season with two impressive road victories over the East Stroudsburg University Warriors and the Millersville University Marauders. With the victories, West Chester has won 59 regular season conference games in a row.On Wednesday, the Golden Rams (16-0, 10-0 PSAC East) used another strong second-half effort to put East Stroudsburg away 16-9.
Michelle Mangiaruga scored first for the Warriors 15 seconds into the game. But West Chester answered right back scoring seven unanswered goals in a 15-minute span. Junior attacker Claire Grimwood scored a minute after Mangiaruga to start the offensive mirage for the Golden Rams.
Freshman midfielder Theresa Guinta scored a minute and a half later for West Chester to give them their first lead of the game. Senior attacker Nicole Haines, junior attacker Shannon Hayes, Grimwood (two goals) and freshman attacker Nicole Pyle scored the other five goals during the run for the Golden Rams.
East Stroudsburg answered with five goals of their own to end the half. Molly O’Hara (two goals), Christine Bradley (one goal) and Jamie Wesztergom (two goals) helped pull the Warriors within one goal of West Chester.
In the second half, the Golden Rams turned up the heat on East Stroudsburg. West Chester outscored the Warriors 9-2 in the second half to remain unbeaten.
Grimwood scored her fourth goal of the game early in the half to give the Golden Rams a two-goal lead. O’Hara answered back for East Stroudsburg a minute later to cut the lead in half. Pyle, senior midfielder Katy Crouse and Hayes scored the next three goals for West Chester.
Sophomore attacker Erin Oczkowski scored the first of five consecutive goals for the Golden Rams to pull away from the Warriors. Freshman midfielder Lauren Glassey scored two goals in a minute and a half to make it 14-8 West Chester. Junior attacker Julia Walsh and Haines scored the final two goals of the game for the Golden Rams.
Grimwood scored four goals and Oczkowski put up six points on the strength of five assists. Haines and Hayes each posted three points with two goals and one assist. Sophomore goalkeeper MacKenzie O’Keefe made nine saves in goal to help pick up her 11th win of the season.
On Saturday, West Chester finished off the regular season with a 15-7 victory over Millersville University. Haines scored four goals for the Golden Rams in her final regular season game for the purple and gold.
Haines scored her first goal of the game 29 seconds in the contest. Six minutes later, the Marauders tied the game up as Liz Weekley scored her 31st goal of the season.
West Chester scored four consecutive goals to pull away Millersville in the first half. Pyle, Haines, Glassey and junior attacker Jackie Hoover scored for the Golden Rams in an 11-minute span.
Millersville got back on the board as Amanda Mattera scored with less than nine minutes left in the first half. West Chester answered with three goals of their own in two minutes as senior attacker Gabrielle Stitz, Crouse and Haines scored to increase the Golden Rams lead to 8-2.
Oczkowski scored off an assist from Haines with 25 seconds in the half as West Chester led 9-3 at the break.
In the second half, the Golden Rams continued to show their dominance as they scored six second half goals. Glassey got things started just 11 seconds into the half to score her second goal of her game.
Katie DiRico scored about a minute later to keep the deficit at six goals. But West Chester scored back-to-back goals as Oczkowski and Hayes scored for the Golden Rams.
Haines, Stitz and junior attacker Devon Lotkowski scored the final three goals of the game for West Chester as they finished off their unbeaten regular season.
Haines finished with four goals and three assists in the game. Stitz, Oczkowski and Glassey each finished with two goals apiece in the game.
O’Keefe got the win as she played the first half and made one save, while freshman goalkeeper Kelly Martin played in the second half and recorded two saves. The Golden Rams outshot the Marauders 43-19 in the game.
Haines finished the regular season with 41 goals and 15 assists to finish with a team-high 56 points. Hayes finished with 17 goals and 34 assists to finish second on the team with 51 points. Grimwood finished with 34 goals and 12 assists to finish the regular season with 46 points, good for third on the team.
Heading into the PSAC postseason tournament, West Chester will be the No. 1 seed. This weekend, the Golden Rams will host the 2010 PSAC Women’s Lacrosse semifinals and finals. They will play the winner of the Mercyhurst-Gannon quarterfinal match, which will be played on Tuesday.
LJ Harrell is a fourth-year student majoring in Marketing. He can be reached at LH639694@wcupa.edu