Lacrosse round-up: Air Force men stay undefeated in SoCon, Navy women keep rolling

Air Force Remains Undefeated in the Southern Conference

The Falcons lost in midweek action to the #2 team in the country in Yale by a score of 13-6. While that would have been a tough match for anyone, it is clear that Air Force is improving and that can be seen in their continued dominance in Southern Conference play thus far.

Air Force faced off against the only other undefeated (in conference play) Southern Conference team in Jacksonville this weekend and easily handled them. The Falcons hosted the Dolphins of JU in Colorado Springs and had the W locked in before the end of the first half, thereby maintaining their perfect conference record.

11 different Falcons got in on the action providing at least one goal. Trey Lervick and Matthew Schwartz both scored two goals, and Senior Captain Cameron Carter made his first offerings of the year by scoring twice as well.

Trent Harper was a force in and of himself on the day, winning 20 of the 23 face-offs he was in on; one of the three losses came on a violation. He set a personal season high with face-offs, while also setting a team season high with ground balls, collecting ten in the contest.

The Falcons are now 7-3 on the season and have won 5 of their last six. Their next opponent will be at High Point this weekend!

Navy Ladies Crush Holy Cross

Navy Women’s Lax absolutely throttled Holy Cross this weekend by a score of 22-6 at Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Nine different Midshipmen got in on the action contributing at least one goal apiece, and four different players notched Hat Tricks: Kayla Harris, Reagan Roelofs, Kelly Larkin, and Caitlin Blanche.

Navy dominated the ground ball effort by a margin of 21 to 11, with 16 different Mids collecting at least one ground ball.

Freshman Reagan Roelofs led the team with 10 draw controls; marking just the second time in team history a freshman has recorded such a mark.

There was never any doubt in this contest, at one point in the second half the score was 21-3. This was another big confidence boost for the Mids who are 9-2 on the season and have dominated in recent weeks. They will head to Baltimore next weekend to face Loyola in what will be their biggest challenge in the Patriot League in the regular season!

Navy Men Fall to Holy Cross

The Mids lost to Holy Cross 9-12 for the third loss in as many weeks. After a promising start to the season, Navy is now 4-5 on the year and 2-3 in the Patriot League. Navy has failed to score double-digit goals in a contest for the last three weeks, while allowing the competition to successfully do so.

It’s not as if the Crusaders ran away with this one, there were ties on five different occasions, but Holy Cross found a way to pull ahead and stay there in the fourth quarter. Navy lost 22 turnovers in the contest, and gave up four goals in man down situations, so they didn’t do themselves any favors.

Lost in the disappointing defeat was Senior Co-Captain Ryan Wade’s achievement of reaching 100 career points, collecting four points in the affair scoring 1 goal and providing three assists.

The Mids will look to get back on track this weekend when they travel to New York to face Patriot League foe Colgate. Colgate is 3-6 on the season and only has one Patriot League victory.

Black Knights Surge Late to Defeat the Bison

There were two minutes left in the match and Army was even with Bucknell until freshman Brendan Nichtern took control and scored two goals in less than 30 seconds to seal the deal. Army won 15-13 and sent Bucknell packing.

This marks the third time the freshman Nichtern delivered the game winner. His final two goals brought his total up to four on the day. Junior Nate Jones and Senior Miles Silva weren’t about to let their plebe teammate have all the fun, as they also scored four goals a piece. Jones became the 12th cadet to eclipse the 100-point mark for a career.

On the other end of the field was Johnny Surdick who was a force to be reckoned with by forcing five turnovers and collecting five ground balls.

Keeper AJ Barretto made ten saves on the afternoon and is now five shy from the 500 mark for his career.

Army is now 8-2 on the season and 4-1 in the Patriot League. The Black Knights will head to Boston to take on the Terriers of Boston University next.

Army’s Late Push Leads to Victory Over Lehigh

Lehigh took an 8-6 lead into the half but could not hold on late in the contest; the one-two combo of freshman Caroline Raymond and Sophomore Jackie Brattan was too much in the end.

Raymond collected her final goal by breaking this poor defender’s ankles:

Raymond and Brattan combined for 5 unanswered goals over a 12-minute span and put the Black Knights ahead for good. The duo combined for a whopping 10 goals apiece; Junior Samantha Stewart also had a big day contributing with a hat trick and 3 assists.

Keeper Maddie Burns came up big in the second half, and collected 11 saves on the afternoon.

The Black Knights are 9-3 on the season and 2-2 in the Patriot League; they will host Lafayette this weekend.