April 18, 2014
The Vanderbilt lacrosse team will conclude its final regular season in the American Lacrosse Conference with the league’s newest member.
The Commodores head to Ann Arbor, Mich., to take on Michigan at noon on Saturday to close out the 2014 regular season. Michigan is in its first season as a program and joined the ALC this year.
The seven-member league will disband after this season, with Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Northwestern joining the Big Ten, which is adding women’s lacrosse next year. Johns Hopkins will compete as an independent. Vanderbilt and Florida are still looking for a new conference home. All seven teams will get together one last time as league members when the ALC Tournament begins on May 1 at Northwestern.
Vanderbilt (4-11, 1-4) wants to head into the conference tournament on a winning note. The Commodores have lost five straight and nine of 10. Their last three, however, have been close affairs. They hung with a pair of top five teams, Northwestern and Florida, on the road and lost by one goal to Jacksonville on Wednesday in the last home game of the season.
In an 11-10 loss to Jacksonville, senior Abby Wheeler scored four times to increase her team-leading season total to 34 goals. Freshman Jill Doherty added three goals – on top of a career-high four caused turnovers – and sophomore Mallory Schonk scored twice. Junior Maddie Kratz made 10 saves to up her total in the last five games to an impressive 46 stops.
But Jacksonville began winning the draw control late in the first half, which led to eight straight goals from the end of the first half into the second half. The Dolphins went up by five and Vanderbilt came up one goal short of forcing extra time.
“I think we need to recognize when we were successful was when we were moving the ball as a team, cutting back to the defenders on the clear and seeing the slides on defense,” Schonk said after the game on Wednesday. “Really just trying to be able to put it all together to be able to get a win (against Michigan).”
The Wolverines (3-11, 0-5) are riding their first winning streak in program history after consecutive wins over Cal (in double overtime) and Detroit. In fact, Michigan has won three of six after it lost its first eight games.
Three players have scored at least 20 goals. Anna Schueler (26 goals and nine assists) and Jess Angerman (23 goals and 12 assists) pace the team with 35 points apiece.