Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Women's Lacrosse team opened up 2019 Wednesday night fighting off tough rainy conditions at Memorial Stadium as they battled No. 23 Claremont-M-S early only to fall 22-7.
The Purple & Gold drop to 0-1, 0-1 SCIAC, while Claremont-M-S improves to 1-0, 1-0 SCIAC.
The Athenas opened up the scoring on their first possession, ten seconds in with Sammie Cohen connecting getting fed by Allie Hill. Two minutes later though Whittier tied things up as Lexie Meanor (Sewickley, PA) found the back of the net thanks to a feed from Jordan Alcarez (Whittier, Calif.) who has found herself in a starting role this season.
After that CMS would tack on five unanswered with Corie Hack adding three of them moving the score to 6-1. But the Poets didn't go away quietly as they strung together three straight over a three minute span with Meanor adding a free-position before feeding Gabby Boller (Howell, NJ) for her first of the season. The final goal during the run came from Morgan Miracle (Tustin, Calif.) at the 10:03 mark. Over the next seven minutes the Poets and Athenas swapped goals with WC getting two more tallies from Meanor that made it a two-goal game with 3:18 to play.
CMS stretched their lead to five as they put together one final push before the half with three straight and then carried that momentum into the second outscoring the Purple & Gold 11-1 over the final 30:00 minutes.
Meanor finished a perfect 5-for-5 shooting with five goals and an assist. She also had four draw controls. Emily Hansen (Seal Beach, Calif.) tallied an assist with three groundballs and two caused turnovers and Noelle Tamas (Granite Bay, Calif.) picked up three groundballs and two caused turnovers.
In goal, Madison Topping (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) finished with 15 saves against 37 shots, while picking up three groundballs.
Whittier was outshot 50-10 for the game and turned the ball over 25 times. They were 11-for-15 on clear attempts and totaled 12 groundballs and 10 draw controls.
Whittier returns to the field this Saturday, February 23 when they host Chapman University beginning at 11:00am.
