By Braedan Shea
@braedan_shea
Stifling defense, dynamic offense, high-intensity and, apparently, rain – all the perfect ingredients for yet another Springfield College women’s lacrosse blowout victory. Just four days removed from a program-record 26 goals against the NEWMAC’s newest member, Salve Regina, the Pride carried that momentum to Stagg Field in a 17-8 blowout victory over Smith College.
The Pioneers, in an effort to slow down Springfield and set the tone early, opened up the game with a fierce physicality. Every Pride drive was met with multiple opposing sticks clogging the lane, bumping and jabbing Springfield to a point of frustration, forcing long, empty possessions.
While the aggressive defensive strategy successfully slowed the Pride down at the start of the game, Smith took its method to the next level, ultimately leading to its downfall. Just four minutes into the first quarter, senior Springfield defender Kyana Alvarado was body-checked off her feet attempting to retrieve a ground ball, resulting in a yellow card on Smith. On the ensuing possession, another Pioneer foul resulted in a free-position goal for Pride midfielder Samantha Andresen. From there, Springfield never looked back.
“We definitely came out a little bit a little slower than we normally do,” said Springfield head coach Jenn Thomas. “So we just had a little chat after the first quarter and said, ‘let’s play our game.’ We can’t be playing to anyone’s level except ourselves. We really are trying to hold ourselves to that Springfield standard against any opponent, and I think the biggest thing was control the controllables and don’t worry about anything else.”
Springfield certainly stepped its game up in the latter half of the first quarter, racing out to a 4-0 lead with under three minutes left. Smith, however, didn’t let the Pride off easily. On back-to-back possessions, Smith found soft spots in a hyperactive Springfield defense, cutting its lead, and momentum, in half.
That is until Andresen, and her nearly unguardable signature one-bounce shot, flipped the game on its head. In the next seven minutes of game time, spanning from the waning seconds of the first quarter until 8:05 left in the second, Andresen tallied three goals, all identical to one another.
Receiving the ball about twenty yards out from the net, Andresen time and again charged at the teeth of the Pioneer defense, unleashing shots that tested the strength of the polyester nets.
A year removed from an all-conference season, Andresen began the season slow by her standards, tallying just five goals through three games. After her team-leading four goals on the day, however, Andresen has emerged as the teams leading scorer, narrowly beating out constant hat-trick threat Lily Johnson (22) and first-year phenom Izzy Lalancette (18), each of whom added two goals respectively.
“I think anyone can score, but Sam is really stepping it up,” Thomas said. “It was funny, we just had a conversation and I said ‘I was going to bring you to the office and ask, ‘Hey, what’s going on,’’ but I knew deep down that she has it in her and she always has. She just needed a little bit of time to warm up and come into our own. She’s really doing that and she’s been a force to be reckoned with. I’m excited for the rest of the season for her.”
With the victory, Springfield is now 7-2, and undefeated in the conference with the two large wins. But the Pride can’t stay complacent for long, as they return to Stagg on Friday against a tougher conference foe, Clark University. Clark has a similar defense to Smith, and will not be holding any punches in spoiling Springfield’s perfect conference and home record.
But rain or shine, Thomas believes that her programs approach to games is what is separating the program from the rest of the NEWMAC
“We joke around that if it rains, it means a win. What’s great is that we’re really trying to focus hard on our mindset this entire season. We keep saying like, it doesn’t matter if it’s pouring rain, we’re gonna embrace it and enjoy it. You can see they’re cheering on the sidelines. They’re excited, they’re acting like it’s not even raining – like it’s sunny and sunshine. They’re doing a good job with that.”
Photo courtesy Springfield College Athletics