The West Chester women’s lacrosse team dropped their first regular season conference loss since 2006 against Bloomsburg with a 14-13 OT deficit, which was followed by a PSAC victory over Mercyhurst.
The Rams took a loss to the Huskies on Sunday afternoon at Sports Stadium and counterbalanced that with a win on Saturday night over the Bears at Tulio Field.
The triumph for Bloomsburg (4-2, 2-0 PSAC) was their first victory over West Chester since 2003 and put a halt to their 15-game losing streak.
In the loss, West Chester (5-1, 3-1) also ceased its 72-game regular season PSAC winning streak.
“The loss to Bloomsburg was a tough one and a wake-up call for us for sure,” Tori Dugan said. “We got away from playing our game and playing as a team. What should have been an intense and competitive attitude towards the game turned to fear and complacency. Playing like that is not like us and we are confident that moving forward we will be able to fix this problem.”
The Rams showed signs of fixing the problem with their victory over the Bears six days later.
Late in the first half of the Bloomsburg game, the Rams trailed behind 7-3 but regained their composure to tie up the score at 7-7 by halftime.
Erin Oczkowski scored the first two goals of the second half to lead the Rams at 9-7. But the lead didn’t last long, as Bloomsburg’s Sam Mazzie matched Oczkowski’s goal to tie the score 9-9.
West Chester’s Brittany Long and Bloomsburg’s Julie Falk each added goals to keep the score even for the third time.
Mazzie and Tori Dugan exchanged goals when Cavana added a goal with 8:13 remaining in the game, putting the Huskies on top 12-11.
Nicole Pyle sent the game into overtime with 54 seconds remaining in regulation.
In the first of two, three-minute OT sessions, West Chester’s Jacki Patterson scored from assist from Dugan. Fifteen seconds later, Falk answered to tie the score, 13-13.
With no scoring for the remainder of the first session, the teams faced sudden victory.
While West Chester won draw control, Bloomsburg forced a turnover and picked up a ground ball to regain possession. The Huskies took the ball down the field and earned a free position shot where Samantha King netted the ball in the lower left side to end the OT struggle.
Oczkowski finished with five points, four goals and one assist, while Dugan also earned five points with two goals and three assists.
Jess Henderson (4-1) made 13 saves in the loss for West Chester while Sara Bates made 14 saves for the win.
“Our loss to Bloom showed us that we cannot take any game for granted or any team lightly,” Dugan said. “Being at the top of the PSAC every year and a national contender, makes us a huge target for every team we play. We have had an awesome week of practice and we can’t wait to play another game.”
The Rams used their opportunity to take down Mercyhurst on a Saturday night game.
“We will go into this game with confidence knowing that we have so much talent and athletic ability on our team, and when we put the pieces together they know what hit them,” Dugan said. “I am excited to see how we bounce back from our loss to Bloom as a team…We want to show PSAC that losing to Bloom should have never happened and we won’t let it happen again.”
With a 17-7 victory, the Rams effectively implemented their strategy and took down the Bears on Saturday.
Dugan, Jamie Dolan and MacKenzie O’Keefe each registered a hat trick in the win, taking down Mercyhurst for the first league game this season.
The Rams took immediate control in the first eight minutes with a 4-0 lead with goals from Dugan, Oczkowski and two from Lauren Glassey.
After Mercyhurst’s Anna Lagrett put up the Bear’s first goal, O’Keefe earned her hat trick with three straight shots and three other unanswered goals from West Chester.
The second half produced similar results, as Mercyhurst improved to 11-4, scoring twice in under two minutes, but Dolan regained control with two straight goals. The Bears were unable to recover from the deficit, and West Chester maintained control until the clock ran out.
Henderson took the win with nine saves.
The Golden Rams rescheduled the game versus Gannon to Sunday at 2 p.m. after it was rained out on Friday afternoon.
“Gannon will be a good game,” Dugan said. “But if we play how we’ve been practicing it should be a fun game to play in.”
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.