The women’s lacrosse team fell to Pacific University 9-4 March 11 following a defeat by the University of Puget Sound on March 7, 19-11.
The conference-opener against the Loggers ended with a UPS victory as a result of early goals.
“We always go into the game putting our best attitudes forward,” head coach Tim Hart said. “But our defense just didn’t match up with UPS’ offense.”
Only a few minutes into the game, the Loggers scored five goals, one each from junior Sofia Lama, freshman Hanna Lucke and senior Katie Schlesinger, and two from freshman Julia Schulman.
Finally putting Linfield on the board, sophomore attacker Anna Gorciak made the ’Cats’ first goal.
However, UPS answered back with another goal by Lama.
With only a few minutes left in the first half, Gorciak, junior attacker Monique Schreiber and freshman midfielder Mariah Jones scored three more goals, bringing the score six to four.
However, UPS responded with three goals of its own and ended the first half of the game with the Loggers in the lead by five goals.
Nonetheless, the ’Cats did not let this discourage them, and they began the second half with Schreiber scoring a goal.
UPS and Linfield then scored two more goals each. One of the ’Cats’ goals was by Jones, thanks to an assist from sophomore midfielder Taylor Fisher, which closed the gap to a difference of four.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats could not close the gap completely, and the Loggers went on to score seven more goals to Linfield’s three by Jones and freshmen midfielders Becca Lewis and Isabelle Burk.
“We could have done a lot better, but whoever fights for it the hardest deserves the win,” Jones said.
This was Jones’ first collegiate match, and she impressed many with her five goals throughout the game.
“I’m happy with how I did, but I still think I could have done a better job in the first 10 minutes of the game,” Jones said.
Gorciak said that she also thought she could have done better at the start of the game. But, she was glad that she got to play as much as she did since she has a sprained ankle.
“We could have had a stronger start, and then we wouldn’t have had to dig ourselves out of a hole the entire time,” Gorciak said.
She said that the team is fairly young this year with eight new players. She said that it is just a matter of learning how to play together and making connections between players.
“The team will bounce back,” Hart said. “They have a lot of potential.”
Jones continued to dominate against the Boxers, adding nine goals in the Linfield loss.
Despite 14 saves by senior goalkeeper Ashley Johnson, the Wildcats were overwhelmed with 11 second-half Boxer goals.
The ’Cats’ will take on Birmingham-Southern College in McMinnville on March 13.

Jessica Prokop
Culture reporter Jessica Prokop can be reached at [email protected]