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Saint Mary's College Women's Lacrosse
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Gaels Go East: SMC Women’s Lax Blog #2

Editor’s note: Cassie Brunelle stops by LAS for her second guest blog (read the first here) about the the SMC Gaels’ trip to Philadelphia. The Lady Gaels lost a couple of tight battles against Saint Joseph’s and Drexel over the weekend, and they face Delaware tomorrow afternoon. Cassie, a Sophomore Midfielder, shares her experience below.
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It was a tough battle on Saturday, and a holy one. Our first opponent was St. Joseph’s, and we knew it was going to be a husband-wife battle (Mary and Joseph… sorry, Catholic school kid reference). We had BEAUTIFUL weather in Philly, but it was still awfully chilly outside.

It was a close fight the entire game. We trailed by one at halftime, a stifling 5-4. Both teams were scoreless for the first ten minutes of the second half, until we tied it up with 20 minutes remaining thanks to a goal by San Diego native (and adrenaline sock junkie) Krista Morgan.

Saint Mary's College Women's Lacrosse
San Diego's Krista Morgan... LAS Sighting!

It came down to the wire and we got ourselves into a game of cat and mouse in the last four minutes. St. Joe’s was up by one and was able to maintain possession for the last few minutes of the game. There is a lot to be learned when games come down to the wire like that; it’s in those games when all the little details add up, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most difficult ways to lose mentally. Knowing that if you had just caught that pass, finished that one shot, or hustled a little more to that groundball, then MAYBE it would have made a difference in the outcome. But we win together and lose together, and we needed to use the frustration of the last few minutes as fuel to power us through the rest of our trip.

Saint Mary's College Women's Lacrosse
The Gaels on the sidelines at St. Joseph's

As important as it was for us to reflect on the game, the reality was that we had another game on Sunday. We had less than 20 hours to process, rest up, and regain confidence, strength, and composure before we took on Drexel University.

Yesterday we woke up refreshed, awake, and headed to Drexel. Unfortunately, things did not fall into place like we had hoped they would. Drexel came out strong, and while we kept it close early in the game, we went down 8-2 at half and couldn’t answer back with the remaining time. Drexel had scouted us and held two of our top scorers without goals. We had a couple of penalties that left us man down a portion of the game, and Drexel had quick shot placement. Disappointing to say the least. We ended up losing 14-4.

It is hard not to hang your head when you lose twice in two days. As a player you want answers. Unfortunately most things can only be fixed with constructive feedback, a renewed confidence, and a refuse-to-lose mentality. There is a lot to believe in with this team, we just need to fit all the pieces together. Now today we get a day off to get some fresh legs, recharge mentally, and put together our gameplan for the University of Delaware tomorrow.

Saint Mary's College Women's Lacrosse
How many Gaels can fit in a phone booth?

So keep on keepin’ on Gaels. Put the L’s behind us and let’s get ourselves a W.

Aside from laxin’, we’ve been enjoying the city of Brotherly Love and are happy that it has been living up to the saying “It’s always sunny in Philadelphia!”

Articles from the games: