Due West, SC- Erskine lacrosse fell to visiting Notre Dame College (South Euclid, OH) 1-21 Saturday evening. With the loss, the Fleet slide to 0-7 on the season while the Falcons improve to 2-1.
The Falcons took control early and jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead within the first three minutes of play. Erskine was able to slow the visitors’ momentum a bit, but the Falcons still managed to put 12 goals before the halftime break.
The pace slowed down significantly during the second half. Notre Dame took the opportunity to practice their signature spread offense, while the Fleet defense did their best to take back possession. Erskine did force a few turnovers during this time, one of which resulted in the only Erskine goal of the game as freshman Jaclyn Glendinning drove into the eight meter mark and blasted a shot by Marissa Lundgren for a goal with a little over ten minutes left to play.
The Falcons quickly went back into their spread offense and Erskine Coach Kristy Quigley began to get very creative in order to speed up the pace. Quigley pulled what seemed to be an absurd move as she yanked the goal keeper Kaitlyn Overley from the game and replaced her with a normal defender, leaving the Erskine goal unattended.
To the spectator, this move was absolute suicide, but Quigley knew that her girls needed to work on aggressive defensive play and that the only way to get the visiting Falcons to attack was to lure them in with a wide open goal. The strategy worked like a charm and the Fleet were given ample opportunity to work on their defense as they had no other choice. Their goal was wide open and the only way to keep Notre Dame from scoring was to play incredible defense. And that they did.
Erskine played the final seven minutes without a goal keeper. This resulted in nine more points for the visitors, but gave the Fleet the intense defensive practice they needed. Although Erskine walked away Saturday with a 1-21 loss, they surely picked up some excellent practice because of Coach Quigley’s unorthodox tactics.
Notre Dame had 11 ladies score Saturday evening. Katie Christensen led all scorers with 4 goals. Jenn Morse, Amy Albanese, and Jill Dixon each added 3 goals to the Falcon cause. Ally Phillips and Marissa Lundgren shared the goal keeping responsibilities; each recorded one save.
Erskine’s Kaitlyn Overley recorded two saves on the evening.
Erskine will return to play next Friday as they host Edinboro College on Huggins Field. Game time is set for 4:00 PM.
