After a dominant performance last Friday afternoon, Army beat Lafayette’s women’s lacrosse team (2-13 overall, 1-8 Patriot League) 20-2 in the last game of the spring 2022 season.
Freshman attacker Sara Rogers described feeling emotional yet excited about this year’s group playing their last game together.
“We all played for each other, and wanted to try to put all the good things we did this season into one last game,” Rogers said.
Rogers scored the Leopards’ first goal of the game, moving her season tally to eight. She also dished eight assists across the 13 games she played in this spring.
“I’m really happy to have been a contributor on the attacking end, with unwavering support from my older teammates out there with me,” Rogers said. “We have a big class of freshmen coming in, and I’m really excited to see what’s in store for next year.”
The Black Knights had no problem finding the back of the net this game, as they went into halftime having scored a whopping 13 goals in comparison to Lafayette’s one.
Lafayette kept the Black and Gold to eight goals in the second half, but the Leopards could only muster one more goal before the final buzzer rang.
With a little more than three minutes left in the game, senior attacker Olivia Cunningham scored the 76th and last goal of her collegiate career. The Villanova native, who has topped the team’s leaderboards since her sophomore year, ended the season with the most goals (27) and points (37) on the team. In addition, her 10 assists this year was the second-highest tally on the team. Her teammates described her as an impactful player and an effective leader.
By the end of the game, Army held the advantage in ground balls (22-11), shots (41-21), clears (16-17 to 10-13) and draw controls (14-12).
Rogers pinpointed disciplined shot selection as the reason why Army could maintain their momentum at such a high level.
“I think we continued to fight and trusted all the girls on the field. However, we definitely could have done a better job of taking care of the ball and finishing our shots,” Rogers said.
Lafayette finished their season in ninth place, ahead of Boston University. Last year, in a season heavily impacted by the pandemic, the team finished in last place with an overall record of 0-6.
“After the game, Coach McConnell said that we came really far as a team in 2022 and accomplished a lot of great things,” Rogers said. “We think the season went well. Many underclassmen played, and we were all happy with the confidence and experience we built up this year.”
