The Slippery Rock women’s lacrosse team fell 20-10 to Mercyhurst University at Tuesday’s Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference match-up.
SRU dropped to a 1-2 overall record (0-1 in league play) with their second straight loss. They defeated Catawba College (24-5) March 20 and fell to Belmont Abbey College (14-17) March 23.
Before they got to play the season opener in Myrtle Beach, the team was struck by the March 16 Seton Hill University bus tragedy.
The accident resulted in the loss of Seton Hill’s women’s lacrosse coach, Kristina Quigley, her unborn child and the bus driver.
Head coach Emily Hopkins said that the conference is doing everything they can to reach out and help support Seton Hill, as well as Quigley’s family and her son, Gavin.
“Our team and conference were significantly impacted by the crash,” Hopkins said. “We have several players who are good friends with many of the Seton Hill players and one of our graduate’s best friend is their assistant coach.”
Slippery Rock will be wearing ribbons on their jersey’s that say ‘SHU’ and red shoelaces in one shoe for the remainder of the season. They will also be wearing armbands that say ‘SHU’ and ‘KQ’ once they arrive.
Once back in SRU, the team faced
their first PSAC match of the season on the road against Mercyhurst.
Mercyhurt had a quick start in the game and set up a 5-0 lead early in the game, 11-6 heading into halftime.
Hopkins said that the team got off to a slow start, but never gave up.
“We continued to try and attle back,” Hopkins said. “We’re a very young team and need to work on executing our game plan and playing to our potential.”
Slippery Rock was unable to recover from the deficit despite four goals from junior Morgan Pettit and a hat trick from freshman Kaytlin Callaghan.
Sophomore Jess Verbic, freshman Erin Wilcox and sophomore Paige Constantino also contributed a goal for the Rock.
Freshman Hanna Houde was in goal for the Rock and made seven saves throughout the game.
The team lost five seniors from last season, causing veteran players to have to step up and fill those leadership positions.
“We’re a young team and it takes time to develop,” Constantino said. “We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but the score doesn’t indicate the effort put into the game.”
Constantino agreed with Hopkins and said that the team needs to focus on executing the plan that they have when they head into games.
When they’re preparing for games, Hopkins requires the team to watch films, review stat sheets and scouting reports and practice running other teams’ plays.
Slippery Rock played Shepherd University Thursday night but the game concluded after The Rocket’s deadline.
The Green and White will remain at home for two more games, including PSAC match-ups against Lock Haven University and Gannon University.
