After a key win against SUNY-Cortland, the Lions lacrosse team continued its success with an 11-3 home victory against the Lady Cavaliers of Cabrini College on Thursday and a 13-9 win over the University of Mary Washington Eagles. The wins brought the team's record to a perfect 5-0, extending its win streak to 19 games.
With this in mind, the Lions were not completely satisfied with their performance against Cabrini.
"I think everyone walked off the field a little frustrated because as a team we could have played better," junior attacker Kristin Zucconi, who recorded three goals and two assists in the victory, said.
The Lions spent the majority of the time in attack mode but were not content because of the overall sloppiness, including the amount of dropped passes. While the Lions clearly dominated play for large portions of the game, they turned the ball over a total of 24 times - only two less than their opponent.
"Games like today against Cabrini put into perspective that the win (against Cortland) is behind us, and we now need to demand that quality of play every time we get on the field," junior defender Christine Cavallo said.
The Lions had a solid start as junior attacker Kate Neese scored 30 seconds into the game. Three minutes later, junior midfielder Karen Doane made it 2-0 on a free position shot.
Doane had three goals and two assists on the game.
"We did really well feeding the ball in the middle," freshman midfielder Jessica Falcone, who tallied three goals, said.
The Cavaliers rarely crossed into the Lions' half of the field as the Lions scored six unanswered goals before Cabrini tallied one with 4:33 left in the first half.
The Lions worked the ball well for some periods of the second half. Zucconi drove down the center to dish to a wide open Falcone, who slipped the ball in the bottom left corner of the goal at 14:35.
"As a team we agreed that we needed to settle down and minimize the turnovers and play smarter," Zucconi said.
The team is not satisfied with the strong victory.
"When you win by eight goals and everyone is not happy, that's because we demand more from ourselves and from our teammates and we know that's what it takes to reach our ultimate goal," Cavallo said.
This dissatisfaction with their win against the Cavaliers paid off when the Lions pulled off a road win Saturday against a team that was ranked ninth in the country. The No. 2 ranked Lions defeated the No. 9 ranked Eagles, 13-9.
Junior Toni-Anne Cavallo led the Lions with four goals and an assist, while Doane added three goals and an assist as well.
Doane has 101 career goals in her career.
In net for the Lions, junior Caitlin Gregory came up with another strong performance as she finished with eight saves to improve her record in the cage to 5-0.
"It was a great win for our team. We had to fight hard to come through with the victory which showed a lot of character and determination," Cavallo, who took control with four goals and an assist, said.
The Lions visit the Rowan University Profs today at 7 p.m. and the Gettysburg College Bullets on Friday at 4 p.m.
