By: Omar K. Elmore, senior writer
The Wofford women’s lacrosse team fell 21-11 to Gardner-Webb in Gibbs Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 20. The game was Wofford’s first as 2017-2018 is the Southern Conference’s first season sponsoring women’s lacrosse and this is the first time Wofford has fielded a team. Other teams, including Furman and Mercer, had previously played in the ASUN Conference. The winner of the championship game, played at Mercer in May at the end of season, will get an automatic bid to the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament.
The afternoon was gloomy with rain throughout the match. However, a vocal group of students cheered on the Terriers from the stands.
Hannah Mutch ’21 scored the program’s first goal seven minutes in. She would go on to score two more goals and added a team-high three assists. Mutch was awarded the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week for her efforts, the first to win the award in Southern Conference history.
On the other side, Amanda Steinmuller gave the Terriers trouble defensively. Steinmuller scored her first of eight goals less than one minute into the contest. Talen Francis scored to put Gardner-Webb up 2-0 before Steinmuller got her second with another goal on a free position shot. The Runnin’ Bulldogs would score again before the Terriers got on the board. Steinmuller would score two more unassisted goals in five minutes to push the lead to 6-1 early.
Sophie Smith ’19 scored her first of three goals with 17:02 left in the first half on an assist from Mutch to end the run, but Lindsey Lippert scored her first of five goals to widen the lead. Wofford ended the half with a 3-2 run lead by JoJo Franklin ‘19, Jessica Borucki ‘19 and a goal and assist from Mutch. Gardner-Webb lead 9-5 at the half.
Out of the half, Gardner-Webb scored two more goals quickly, including Steinmuller’s sixth, but Wofford made a run. Mutch scored her third goal off an assist from Smith before grabbing her third assist two minutes later when she helped Franklin net her second goal. Borucki scored another a few minutes later before Smith scored her own unassisted goal to push Wofford’s run to 4-0 and cut Gardner-Webb’s lead to 11-9.
This is the closest the Terriers would get to a comeback. The Runnin’ Bulldogs used an 8-2 run over the final 13 minutes to close the game and win the match. Wofford fell to 0-1 in the season.
Kelsey Thompson ’19 was in goal for Wofford the whole game and tallied 10 saves.
Steinmuller led Gardner-Webb with a game-high eight goals and Lippert followed with five of her own.
Wofford’s women’s lacrosse played its second game on Feb. 24 against Presbyterian at 1 p.m., results for which can be found online at http://woffordterriers.com/index.aspx?path=wlax. The rest of the season’s schedule, as well as the team roster can be found as well at the above website.
