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Photos: Oona Venermo
York’s women’s lacrosse 1st team turned up the heat on an already scorching Roses Sunday to romp to a huge 37-3 victory over Lancaster and take all four points.
The only disappointment for UYLC will be that that they were narrowly pipped to being the club to secure York’s overall Roses victory by the women’s canoe polo team, but with 11 different scorers, this is unlikely to get them down too much.
Sasha Greane bagged herself 12 goals, whilst Hughes, Saunders and Russell each scored four, and Barrett, Mattick, Whitehand, Bond, Whillians, Thomas and Gordon all found the net to put the gloss on a result which fell just shy of the club’s whopping 40-0 record set two years previously.
Such was the ease in York’s victory that captain Whitehand felt slightly disappointed not to have reached that landmark this time around, but she enthused about some of the fresh faces they will have coming through into the side next year.
“We surpassed out score of last year. We didn’t quite hit out 40 target and we conceded but we fought hard,” she said. “It’s nice to see some of the talent we’ll have coming through next year.”
The tone was set from the very start. Hughes set up Greane to score inside the first minute, and Hughes had a goal of her own moments later. Greane then added three more in quick succession whilst Lancaster were limited to a single attack in the early stages which saw two efforts fly safely wide of Blumsom’s goal.
The goals kept flowing for the girls in black and gold – Hughes fired low into the net and Saunders capped off an excellent run with her first goal of the game before Lancaster’s Gibson gave their fans something to cheer about when she made it 8-1 just before the end of the first quarter.
Izzi Mattick ensured York maintained their dominance by making it 9-1 early in the second quarter, before the Lancaster ‘keeper, who was her side’s best player despite conceding 37 times, made two excellent saves to deny both Russell and Saunders.
Her resistance didn’t last long however. Whillians, Saunders, Barrett and Whitehand all scored to make it 13-1 before Heather grabbed Lancaster’s second.
York added a further five goals to their tally before half-time. Russell picked up three of them, the first courtesy of a storming run down the right and cross in from the pacy Mattick.
The other two came from Katie Barrett – she first slammed in a rebound from a Russell effort and later turned a defender to score low into the net, leaving the score at 18-2 at the halfway stage.
It didn’t get any better for the Red Rose. Two goals from Barrett and one from Bond made it 21-2 before the girls in red failed to score despite a sustained period of pressure – the York defence of Wild, Savage and Longstaff standing strong.
Greane found her way back onto the scoresheet, scoring a further three to help her side increase their lead to 24 points, before Lancaster again bagged themselves a late consolation at the end of a quarter when Gibson picked up her second goal of the day.
That was to be their final contribution. York scored 11 times without reply in the final quarter, and in truth, it could have been more.
Some good play between Greane and Whitehand allowed Thomas to make it 27-3, and Greane herself scored five times in the quarter to take her tally into double figures. It was fitting that, following a couple of good strikes from Saunders, it was she who rounded of the scores at 37-3 in the closing moments to affirm UYLC’s continued Roses dominance.
The only disappointment for UYLC will be that that they were narrowly pipped to being the club to secure York’s overall Roses victory by the women’s canoe polo team, but with 11 different scorers, this is unlikely to get them down too much.
CORRECTION- Women’s canoe slalom