April 15, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Vanderbilt/Ohio State lacrosse rivalry is known for its nail-biting finishes, and the latest installment was no different as the 15th ranked Commodores (9-4, 3-1) held on in the closing minutes to defeat the Buckeyes 10-9 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
“This was a classic Vanderbilt-Ohio State game,” said Commodore head coach Cathy Swezey. “We thought we were going to put them away, but they performed extremely consistent and inched their way back in. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but we’ll take it.”
Sophomore Cara Giordano opened up the scoring for Vanderbilt with an unassisted goal at the 25:47 mark, but was quickly answered by two Ohio State (7-5, 0-2) goals less than two minutes apart. The Commodores would control the tempo of the first half, and thanks to goals by Giordano, freshman Sarah Downing and senior Kendall Thrift, Vanderbilt took a 4-3 lead into the half.
The second half saw a very aggressive Commodore attack from the get-go, as Vanderbilt would find the back of the net four times within the first five minutes. The first goal of the half was scored at the 28:36 mark by junior Margie Curran off an assist by Thrift. The assist was the 58th of Thrift’s Commodore career and made her the all-time assist leader in Vanderbilt lacrosse history.
Thrift would finish with two assists on the afternoon and scored a goal of her own with 24:55 remaining. Giordano recorded a hat-trick when she scored her third goal of the game with 28:17 to go in the game, and Curran notched her second goal of the afternoon with just under three minutes gone in the half. The aggressive play burst the Commodores to an 8-3 lead with 25 minutes to go, and it appeared Vanderbilt might avoid another nail-biter with the Buckeyes.
“Our game plan was to come out, be aggressive, and hopefully put this one away early in the second half,” said coach Swezey. “We did exactly that, but unfortunately we couldn’t maintain that intensity and ran into the same problem we have had all year in not being able to put teams away when we have the chance.”
Not about to go down without a fight, three Buckeye goals in a three minute span cut the lead to 8-6. Curran would give Vanderbilt a little breathing room with her third goal of the game at the 18:56 mark. Following a Buckeye goal with 12:03 remaining, junior Ashley Paschall answered off an assist from senior Jennifer Tapscott, and the Commodores held a 10-7 lead with ten minutes to play.
Playing down by three, Ohio State showed incredible patience, as the Buckeyes were unable to find an open shot against the Vanderbilt defense. Bethany Carey cut the lead to 10-8 with 2:26 to play, which was followed by a big draw control win for Ohio State. Again, the Buckeyes patiently waited for their best shot, which came when Amanda Shimp scored her third goal of the game with 47 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 10-9.
Ohio State would again win the draw control and forced the ball into the Vanderbilt zone to try and set up the game-tying shot. But junior Sasha Cielak forced a huge turnover at the top of the crease, giving the Commodores possession and ultimately icing the contest for Vanderbilt.
The victory extended Vanderbilt’s winning streak over Ohio State to eight, and improved the Commodores overall series record against the Buckeyes to 11-1. But the series has been much closer than the numbers show, as six of the last eight contests have been decided by one goal. But more importantly for Vanderbilt, it clinched at least the second seed in the American Lacrosse Conference tournament.
“This is an amazing feat for these girls to accomplish,” Coach Swezey said. “At the beginning of the year, we were picked to finish fourth. Here we are all alone in second place. But we still have work to do. We need to continue to get better and play a full 60 minutes.”
Two Commodores also achieved personal bests in the win over the Buckeyes. With three goals, Curran now has 37 goals on the season, eclipsing her previous season high of 36 set in 2006. Also, Thrift scored a goal and added two assists, giving her 23 goals in the season and surpassing her personal best of 22 goals, also set in 2006.
The Commodores return to the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex for the final home game of the season when they battle 11th ranked Notre Dame Wednesday. Vanderbilt’s seniors will be honored before the game, and the opening draw is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT.
