The Occidental women’s lacrosse team fought to cut into a 9-0 deficit, sinking seven shots during a busy second half, only to fall to Pomona-Pitzer 13-7 Saturday afternoon at Jack Kemp Stadium. The game was the second in the team’s SCIAC season.
Co-captain Alida Beck (senior) controlled the first draw of the game, which was quickly followed up by two attempted shots; first was a free position shot by Alessandra Quaroni (junior) and then a strong weak-side high shot by co-captain Beebe Sanders (senior), both saved by the Sagehen’s keeper.
The Sagehens bit back, successfully clearing the ball and eventually scoring the first goal of the game.
The Tigers’ offense fought through the slow start with 10 shots on goal, but walked off the field scoreless at the end of the half trailing 9-0.
Attackers Sierra Slack (first-year) and Beck shook up the Sagehens, both scoring two goals in the last 30 minutes of the game. Slack and Beck scored their first goals of the game as free positions. The team’s offense used the first half as a warm up and ultimately outscored Pomona-Pitzer in the second half 7-4.
“We realized we needed to step it up and push each other,” Slack said. “We needed to get our energy up at half time, so we came out to the second half with high energy ready to push each other and work as a team.”
Senior co-captain Kristin Feinberg* kept the Occidental defense strong, picking up four ground balls and causing four turnovers. Feinberg lead the Tigers in most ground balls and supported Occidental goalkeeper Adrienne Ruth (senior) in her six saves during the game.
Leading in assists for Occidental was Brita Loeb (junior), who aided Slack in scoring her second goal of the game.
Goals scored by Sanders, Mackenzie Wright (junior) and Rebecca Reese (sophomore) made the crowd go wild and rattled the Sagehen’s goalie.
“We changed our shooting and took advantage of the goalie’s weakness in the second half,” Sanders said. “We said we were going to come with grit, and we knew what to change from the first half.”
With yellow cards drawn on both teams, the heated game ended with three Occidental goals in the last five minutes, but it was not enough to make up for the first-half deficit.
Now in its sixth year, the women’s lacrosse program is still relatively new to Occidental’s campus, and the players on the team were pleased so many people came to show support—attendance was reported at 220 people.
“We didn’t play a full game today,” Wright said. “[It] was an eye opener, but the crowd support was really great.”
Though the game did not end in a win for Tigers, Beck and the rest of the Tigers are dedicated and excited to improve themselves this season as athletes and a team.
“We’re not the team that is nine behind at half time,” Beck said. “My goal for us is to be happy when we walk off the field.”
With a close 12-10 loss against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps earlier in the week, the Tigers have a record of 0-2 overall and 0-2 in SCIAC play. Occidental will be hosting their next game against Redlands tonight at 7 p.m. in Jack Kemp Stadium.
