Two Tough Losses For Women’s Lacrosse Team

Contributing Writer
Marcus Blackwell

It was a tough weekend for the women’s lacrosse team in their two games against the Davidson Wildcats and George Washington Colonials.

With head coach Jen O’Brien still on maternity leave, the Rams’ assistant coaches were geared to lead the team, however.

On April 15 against Davidson, VCU was able to jump out to a quick start a minute into play, when freshman Molly Barcikowski scored, giving VCU the 1-0 lead.

Despite this, Davidson would quickly recover and score five unanswered goals to give them a 5-1 advantage early in the first half.

Freshman midfielder Sky Hyatt responded with back-to-back goals of her own to trim the margin. The scores pushed Hyatt to 34 goals on the season.

The first half continued with the same pattern, whenever VCU would cut the lead, Davidson would quickly respond. The Lady Rams went into the half trailing 7-4.

In the second half, the Rams were unable to keep with the rapid scoring coming from Davidson’s Emma Sissman’s four goals. Davidson went on a 6-1 run early, making a possible comeback tough for VCU.

Barcikowski found the net twice in the last minutes of play to complete her fourth hat-trick on the season. Freshmen Sofia Emond and Ryann Shaughnessy added second half scores, but the Rams were unable to hault Davidson’s dominant exhibition. The Wildcats defeated VCU by a final score of 19-9.

Assistant coach Tara Coyle was satisfied with VCU’s effort but was looking for a better performance next time out.

“The A-10 Conference is proving to be unpredictable this season,” Coyle stated. “The wins and losses become more diversified each weekend. It is an exciting time for our conference and our team and we are looking ahead to Sunday.”

George Washington

VCU returned to Richmond to host a matchup against George Washington University on April 17.

In the Atlantic 10 conference matchup, the game began with both teams getting quick goals in what was a back and forth affair. Hyatt put the first two points on the scoreboard for VCU with the first assisted by Sofia Emond. This game moved at a quick tempo with both teams. Emond would also score two goals in the first period.

As good as the Rams were playing early, with good scoring distribution, George Washington was right there with them right until the half. VCU went into the half with the score all tied up, 7-7.

Similar to VCU’s last game against Davidson, in the second half the Rams were outscored by a large margin and were unable to cut the lead by the game’s end.

The two leading scorers on the year, Hyatt and Barcikowski, were successful in scoring in the second period, but as a whole, VCU was outscored in the second half 13-5.

The game ended in a George Washington victory, 20-12.

Freshman, Clare Murphy knows the team still has a lot to improve on and is ready to make advances towards that to end the season.

“We experienced a tough loss. Nevertheless, it was another very important learning experience for our team,” Murphy said. “The good thing about this group is that at the end of the day, our team is still the strongest support system there is. We are ready to get back to work.”