The American University lacrosse team (6-8) fell to the Navy Midshipmen (12-3) in their April 8 game 17-8.
Before the contest, the Eagles donned warm-up shirts for Morgan’s Message and The Hidden Opponent, two on-campus organizations advocating for student athlete mental health. In doing so, AU lacrosse joined a Patriot League-wide effort to recognize the importance of student athlete mental health.
“I have an open-door policy and I make sure that my athletes feel as comfortable as can be coming to me with, you know, any issue that they might have,” head coach Lindsay Teeters said of her support for student-athletes’ mental health.
The game itself began quietly, with no scoring in the first five minutes. Each team possessed the ball multiple times, causing turnovers on each other and picking up ground balls.
No. 23-ranked Navy broke the silence decidedly by finding the back of the net twice in the span of a minute. Sophomore midfielder Becca Frank responded for American a few minutes later. Continuing a relatively quiet first quarter, the Midshipmen scored again, returning to their 2-goal lead.
Winning their first draw control of the game, American secured the ball thanks to junior midfielder Lizzie De Guzman and freshman midfielder Kellie Linehan who finished off the play with a goal. Navy moved urgently and scored soon after securing a ground ball pickup. The Midshipmen held the advantage at the end of the first quarter, leading 4-2.
Navy once again dominated the ball in all zones and was aided by two Eagles receiving cards around the same time. Up two players, Navy scored their fifth goal of the game. The Midshipmen proceeded to score 6 more goals with no response from the Eagles. Junior goalkeeper Mary Alice Collins contributed some solid saves, but her goalkeeping was no match for Navy’s persistence.
After the Midshipmen received a yellow card, Alyssa Apuzzo finally scored again for American on a diving shot. The first half finished with Navy ahead 11-3, though not for lack of trying on American’s part. The Eagles took three shots in the final minute that either went wide or were saved by the Midshipmen.
American scored a pair of goals to start the third quarter, thanks in large part to Linehan. She assisted junior midfielder Hannah Spease on her goal, then scored herself on a free position shot. Unfazed by the Eagles’ small rally, the Midshipmen proceeded to score 5 in a row to finish off the third quarter.
American won the fourth quarter, scoring 3 goals to Navy’s 1. However, it had little effect on Navy’s substantial lead, and the Midshipmen were victorious 17-8. Those 3 goals came from Spease, Linehan and freshman attacker Kristen Hegarty, who scored her first collegiate goal in the final minute of the game.
Navy dominated most statistical categories in this game,]; however, their 21 draw controls to American’s 7 had a great effect. The Midshipmen’s ability to secure the ball and charge down the field and get shots off secured the win for them.
“I think anytime you have to compete against the top four teams in the conference, it’s tough and we’ve done it four in a row,” said Teeters. “I think we’ve had some shining moments, we’ve had some disappointing moments. But for us, the most important thing moving forward is that we focus back on ourselves and fix the mistakes that we’re in control of, and make sure that we’re really trusting each other and taking it one play at a time and going from there.”
The Eagles next take on the Colgate Raiders on Saturday, April 22 at 1 p.m. in Hamilton, New York.
This article was edited by Delaney Hoke and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Isabelle Kravis and Natasha LaChac.
