SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – A broken-down bus stalled the start of Saturday's women's lacrosse game at Wittenberg University, but it did nothing to slow down the Kenyon College Ladies, who racked up their 10th straight win by defeating the host Tigers, 21-17.
Kenyon's current win streak is now the longest in program history, eclipsing the previous record of nine in a row set by the 2013 team.
With four games left in the regular season, the Ladies have an 11-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark within North Coast Athletic Conference competition.
Although the outcome was only a four-goal difference, the Ladies never trailed the Tigers. That was due mainly to a 7-0 start that saw seniors
Lucy Somers and
Cassie Hudson-Heck both score twice. Hudson-Heck went on to score four more times in the half to give the Ladies a 15-7 advantage at the break.
When the second half stared, Kenyon got two goals from
Avery Morgan and another from Hudson-Heck, giving her seven for the game. At that point, Kenyon was sitting on an 18-7 lead with a little more than 23 minutes left in the contest.
Over the next 16 minutes of play, Wittenberg charged back with an 8-1 run that left it just five goals shy of the Ladies. Gretchen Burkey had three goals for the Tigers during that run. Josee Clayton, who finished with a team-high six goals, scored once during the Wittenberg push.
Somers, who tallied four goals and an assist for Kenyon, kept the Tigers at bay, scoring twice in the final six minutes to seal the Kenyon victory.
Hudson-Heck's seven goals gave her 59 on the season and 180 in her career. With four games left, she's on pace to topple the program single-season record of 66 goals set by Ali Lacavaro in 1998.
Morgan ended up adding five goals and an assists to the Ladies' totals, while
Maya Fair,
Maggie Grabowski and
Jayne Gelman each had a two-point game.
Wittenberg, which fell to 6-7 overall and 2-3 in the NCAC, managed to hang with the Ladies by out-shooting them 44-36 and by winning 31 of 40 draw controls.
The Ladies now return home for their next game, which will be Tuesday at 5 p.m. against Oberlin College (4-7, 3-2 NCAC).
