By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Assignment Writer
The St. Bonaventure women’s lacrosse team suffered its first loss last Saturday to the Robert Morris University Colonials, 17-10.
Robert Morris jumped out to an early 8-1 lead, but the Bonnies answered with two straight goals to end the first half to make it 9-3 Colonials. In the second half, the Bonnies and the Colonials went back and forth in goals, keeping it to a six goal lead for the Colonials until the end of the game when they held off the Bonnies.
Head Coach Chelsea Rosiek said she saw some positives and negatives in the game.
“Positives, in terms of the speed and competitive play much better than last season when we played them. I also felt like the team chemistry and team dynamics are coming along, everybody seems to be doing their job,” Rosiek said. “Negatives, you can’t let a team go up on a six-goal run in the first half and expect to be able to come back.”
The Bonnies were lead by senior attacker Leigh Ann Stauffer with five goals off of six shots. Stauffer was the leading goal scorer last season and is also the captain this year. She credits her success to good preparation before the game.
“I went into the game knowing it was going to be tough. In previous years, Robert Morris has always been a scrappy team,” Stauffer said. “Studying the film prior to the game helped me visualize what I had to do when it came time to play them. Our team needed goals, so I did whatever I could to get us those points up on the board.”
Although it is the Bonnies first loss on the season, Stauffer believes there are positives that can come out of it.
“Being our first loss of the season, it was a tough one. However, this game showed us what we struggle with against other teams,” Stauffer said. “Moving forward we can work on these in practice and collectively get better as a team. Losing isn’t easy, but it’s nice to be on a positive team that believes we can bounce back from this loss.”
The Bonnies kept the Colonials around five to six goals in the second half. Freshman attack Rylee Arnold talked about how to eliminate that deficit.
“We need to come out in the first half as a strong team in every game from now on, so that we won’t have to come back in the second half.,” Arnold said. “If a game isn’t going our way, we need to collect ourselves and figure out the problem before it’s too late to bring back the score.”
Arnold, a freshman, has racked up two goals and two assists. She said she credits this effort to the work she puts in at practice.
“Working hard in practice and understanding each player on the team helps a lot when it comes to assists and goals,” Arnold said. “I hope that through practices and games I’ll become a fluid part of the offense and can find an assist to someone.”
Being a young starter on the team, Arnold said she knows she has to work on her game but hopes to learn from the talent around her.
“I need to work on how to read and help my teammates during the games. This pace and type of play is much different than my small high school team,” Arnold said. “There’s a lot of talented girls here, and I hope that if I work hard enough I’ll be able to contribute throughout my lacrosse career.”
After two games played already, Stauffer believes her team needs to come out strong from the first whistle.
“One of our biggest problems is digging ourselves into a hole too early in the game. It’s difficult to dig ourselves out. We have to come out from the first whistle and put together an entire game and not just a half,” Stauffer said.
Looking toward the future Stauffer believes that her team can be successful this season, even with a new coach and mindset.
“I’m confident that we can put together a good season this year. Our out-of-conference games are competitive, but the A10 is way more competitive,” Stauffer said. “I’m hoping that we can win at least half of our games that we have this year. With a new coach, our program is building all over again, but I think we have the talent to put together a good season.”
The Bonnies will head to Albany to take on the Siena College Saints on Saturday. Face-off will be at 12 p.m.
sawyerjp15@bonaventure.edu
