Lacrosse falls to defending Atlantic Sun champions 18-4
The Central Michigan lacrosse team was unable to stop the defending Atlantic Sun Conference Champion Jacksonville on Friday in its third conference game of the season.
CMU fell to JU 18-4, scoring three of its four goals in the first half.
(MORE: Saginaw Chippewa Tribe blesses field in pregame ceremony Friday)
The Dolphins (10-4, 5-0 A-Sun) have never lost an A-Sun game in their four-year existence in the conference. Since joining the league, they have won all three conference tournament championships.
Freshmen Summer Abdalla, Riley Huda, Logan Halvorson and Jocelyn Lemay each contributed a goal for the Chippewas.
Erin McGuire put the Dolphins on the board less than a minute into the game. JU scored three more goals before Abdalla scored the first goal for CMU at 21:19.
“They keep their foot on the gas pedal the whole time,” said Head Coach Sara Tisdale. “They keep coming at you in waves and once they start and engage in their offense, it’s just one after the other, so you really have to be on your toes.”
Lemay attempted two shots, scoring once and had an assist. She leads the team statistically with 25 goals on 42 shots.
Goalkeeper Dominique Hamman had 11 saves. California freshman, Clare Laughery had four saves in the second half.
“Jocelyn (Lemay) had great heads up plays in transition,” Tisdale said. “Dom (Hamman) and Clare (Laughery) both got to play in goal today and faced some really tough shots. For them to be able to come out today and play strong and confident was great.”
CMU viewed this game as an opportunity to play better as a team in their upcoming conference games. Tisdale said playing challenging teams like JU and Michigan provides more learning experience for her young team.
“To be the best, you have to play the best,” she said. “The biggest thing for us is to learn to battle through ground balls. You see Jacksonville with their heads down, fighting through ground balls and that’s a tempo setter.”
The Chippewas (4-7, 0-3 A-Sun) hope to pick up their first conference win when they host Stetson Sunday at noon. The Hatters (5-9, 1-4 A-Sun) lost 16-6 against Detroit Friday.
