“I don’t think that we really came out confident and we made had to make adjustments just based on the injuries and illnesses and I don’t think we handled that very well,” Head coach Shanta Loecker said.“Ultimately, we knew were going to see a cloudy opponent and they showed up and played a great day. At the end of the day we just weren’t ready to compete with them.”
The Colorado Mesa Mavericks women’s lacrosse team were beaten by Regis University (RU) 10-23 on Saturday afternoon. The Mavericks biggest issue were the 27 turnovers compared to Regis’s 17. It also ended CMU’s seven-game win streak.
This game started with RU’s Jessica Berg scoring three minutes in to start the game, but CMU’s sophomore attacker Marissa Leonardi answered with her own goal a minute later. The first 15 minutes were filled with goals by both squads but the Rangers were able to keep advancing on offense as they were up 8-3 halfway through the first half. Leonardi scored two of the Mavericks three goals in the opening 15 minutes.
Regis would score five more times before the Mavericks senior attacker Amanda Barton would end the run. CMU would ignite some energy amongst themselves as they would score two more goals with Barton picking up one of them. The Mavericks did get the last word and some momentum as Leonardi picked up her third goal of the half with 14 seconds left to bring to the game to 7-15. However, CMU had 16 turnovers and only 10 groundballs in the first half which helped Regis maintain the sizable lead.
“They have a very athletic group, they are very fast and they came up with the ball a lot and put good pressure on the ball, I don’t think their defense was especially unique,” Loecker said. “It wasn’t something we hadn’t seen before, but we just couldn’t work through it as well today, they are really fast, and their speed is a big part of the amount of pressure they can put on the ball.”
To start the second half, RU would again open up the scoring as Ali Vanek would put one past sophomore goaltender Lula Mitchell. Senior Olivia Hayden would open scoring up for the Mavericks to bring the score to 8-17. Regis really controlled the first 15 minutes of the second half limiting CMU to only five shots and five ground balls.
In the last fifteen minutes, Regis would score its last three goals and limit the Maverick offense exponentially. Hayden would score her 40th of the season as her and Koch were the only scorers for the Mavericks in the second half. In the second, the Mavericks picked up only eight ground balls and had 11 turnovers.
“The effort level never came into question, I think we were reacting to mistakes a lot and as a result, they went on an 8-0 run in the first half, during that span we had players with their heads down,” Loecker said. “I think the personality of the team was not where we wanted, and I don’t think we were walking around with the next play mentality as we worked on all season.”
The Mavericks were led in scoring by Leonardi who had three goals all in the first half, and Hayden with two goals all in the second half.
CMU was 50 percent on draw controls on the day splitting 17-17 with Regis.
