Women’s lax wins inaugural D-1 game
Photo by Ali Jones
Sophia Belletti, Staff writer
Nearly 800 Ram fans stood in brisk 20 degree weather to show their love for the program as the women’s lacrosse team hosted its inaugural game at Cary Street Field Sunday at noon. With a recorded seven saves and 13 assists, VCU beat Gardner-Webb University 21-9
“It was awesome seeing the whole community come together, both the school and the city of Richmond, to support our team,” said freshman attack Molly Barcikowski. “There were so many people here today who wanted to come out to see what lacrosse was and I think we gave them a good showing.”
Barcikowski began making her mark early, giving her team an early 1-0 lead about seven minutes into the game.
“Personally, having the first goal ever in VCU lacrosse history is pretty awesome,” Barcikowski said. “I’m excited that I got to do it with this team and I’m looking forward to making more of those memories.”
Barcikowski was the highest scorer on Sunday with five goals total. The freshman from Sykesville, Maryland recorded a hat trick – three goals – in the first 12 minutes of the match.
“Going out onto the field, I think we were all ready and it showed at the end of the game,” Barcikowski said. “I think we met our expectations. Going into the next week of practice, we’re just going to take this game as a learning experience and keep moving forward.”
VCU ended the first half leading 12-4. The Rams aggression and offense control continued into the second half, although it took the team a little longer to regain momentum.
Seven minutes in, freshman midfielder Blaire Langeler scored her third goal, putting VCU on the scoreboard for the first time in the second half. Langeler, Barcikowski and freshman attack Mackenzie Galli all recorded hat tricks.
The Bulldogs used fast breaks to get on the board. Three goals in three minutes gave the Rams a scare, but VCU’s redshirt-freshman attack Chloe Mujwit responded with a goal of her own.
“We need to slow the ball down a lot quicker in transition and even if they don’t score on transition we need to be able to be the aggressive,” said Head Coach Jen O’Brien. “That’s something we like to do, play aggressive style defense.”
In the end, O’Brien said the game was a learning experience.
“We’re going to continue working on our chemistry on both ends of the field,” O’Brien said. “That’s natural with a young team, we’re still learning to work together and support each other.”
O’Brien said it was important to the coaches that they played a deep rotation Sunday, making sure every girl on the roster got minutes during the program opener.
“We want to play fast and play aggressive so it’s very important to have those subs,” O’Brien said. “We have to develop our team and to develop our team they have to be out there in games.”
Overall, 11 Rams found the back of the net in the victory. Redshirt-freshman midfielder Sky Hyatt led the team with four assists.
“I am so proud of our girls,” O’Brien said. “We’ve said it from the beginning they’ve put in so much work. They’ve waited so long to play a game. I’m just so happy for them to finally be able to play and enjoy this game with all of the support that they have.”
The Rams return to action Feb. 20 as O’Brien returns to her alma mater UMBC where she played all her four years. Game-time is set for 3 p.m.
Staff Writer, Sophia Belletti
Sophia is a sophomore print/online journalism major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. She enjoys writing about current events and sports and hopes to one day be a sports reporter, covering soccer, basketball and baseball. You can usually find Sophia drinking way too much coffee and laughing at her own jokes. // Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn