Women’s lacrosse victorious in only home games
The Utah State women’s lacrosse club had an impressive showing in its only home games this season.
The Aggies started the day with a 9-4 win over Boise State and in their second game beat rival BYU 9-6 for their first win over the Cougars.
Midfielder Molly Claflin said that this win was especially sweet because BYU’s coach is also the coach for Team Utah. He chose four Aggies – Molly and Kate Claflin, Lindsay Meintel and Katie Grow – to represent Utah in the national tournament in Lehi, Pa., over Memorial Day weekend.
In its first game, Utah State seemed a step quicker than the BSU Broncos. By halftime the Aggies held a 6-1 lead. The ladies in blue and white kept pressing Boise in the second half and held the Broncos to just three more scores.
Katie Schneiter beat BSU’s goalie twice, while Diana Ford and Lindsey Cook each scored a goal.
In the second game, BYU and USU traded a pair of goals to start the game. The Aggies then added two more goals and led 4-2 at the half.
The Aggies tightened up their defense for the second half and looked to hold their lead by dominating face-offs and time of possession. BYU’s offense managed to find the back of the net four more times, but for every Cougar score the Aggies answered back with a goal of their own.
With two minutes left, goalie Katie Grow and the defense shut down the BYU attack for good. Ford scored twice while Cook and Schneiter also found the back of the net to help the Aggies pull off the upset.
After the big win, Meintel, the team captain, said, “When we took care of the little things, the big things came into place.”
The Aggies’ success in the face-off circle kept the pressure on BYU throughout the half. The Cougars had just played the University of Utah an hour earlier and began to slow down in the second half.
Utah State’s offense was led by the Claflin sisters. The siblings were responsible for nine of USU’s 18 goals on the day. Kate netted four goals against BSU and Molly scored one of her own in the tournament’s opening game.
The Claflin’s continued the attack in game two, as Molly roll-dodged and ran past BYU for five goals. BYU attempted a comeback over the last five minutes, but Molly pounded the final nail in the Cougar’s coffin with under a minute left.
That goal put the Aggies up by three for good. All BYU could do was listen to the timer call off the final seconds in their first defeat at the hands of the Aggies.
-spence@cc.usu.edu