By Jacob Adams
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/30/11
Two Philly women’s teams desperately needing a victory Tuesday met in a tense Division I college game at Temple.
The host Owls broke a six-game losing streak as junior midfielder Missy Schweitzer (Owen J. Roberts) scored with 1:05 to play gave Temple a 12-11 non-conference victory.
Schweitzer led the Owls (2-7) with three goals and an assist while sophomore midfielder Charlotte Swavola (Cheltenham) tacked on two goals and four assists and junior midfielder Kelsey Zenuk (St. Mark’s, Del.) tallied three goals.
“This win was huge,” Temple coach Bonnie Rosen said. “Obviously, the team was just aching for a win and that’s kind of what you saw today.”
Temple seemed to have control of the game in tghe opening half. The Owls scored four unanswered goals in the first 12 minutes as Swavola provided two assists and a goal. The Leopards (1-9) pulled within 5-2, but Temple tacked on three more goals before sophomore attacks Addie Godfrey and Katie Leto scored in the final three minutes for Lafayette to cut the deficit to 8-4 at halftime.
The Owls out-shot Lafayette 15-10 in the first half, but the second half was a different story.
Temple scored two goals to make it 10-4 before the Leopards opened up with six unanswered goals in 10 minutes. Sophomore midfielder Jessica Rothstein (Harriton) and freshman midfielder Ana White (Strath Haven) scored two goals each during the run, which tied the game with 10:37 to play.
The team didn’t have much choice but to be more aggressive said Lafayette coach Allison Fisher (Hatboro-Horsham, Ultimate Goal coach).
“We had to be more threatening offensively, for sure,” Fisher said. “We had to pay attention to details. We had to take care of the ball better in transitions.”
Schweitzer put the Owls up again a few seconds later before Rothstein tied the game with eight minutes left.
“To be able to close that gap and tie it up is obviously a huge momentum swing and a huge indicator of the potential we have,” Fisher said.
Said Rosen: “I give a lot of credit to Lafayette for figuring out how to start coming up with more and more of the draw control.
“We certainly knew they were on a run and we had to find a way to finish,” she added.
With the seconds ticking away Schweitzer got the game-winner and the Owls were able to close out the game with solid defense.
“We were just trying to really wait for the best opportunity to shoot the last shot,” Schweitzer said. “I didn’t wait until the last shot. But, going through my head, I knew I had the perfect opportunity to take that shot.”
“With the out, if someone felt like they could really get it done, they had the green light to do it,” Rosen added. “Clearly [Schweitzer] was feeling it and took the opportunity and finished it.”
The loss obviously stung the Leopards but they were able to draw some positives from a very exciting game. Rothstein led the game with four goals on six shots while White led with six points off two goals and four assists.
“Nobody’s an easy ‘W’ and we certainly didn’t come in with any expectations except that we knew it was going to be a close game either way,” Fisher said.
“Ana White is a real pivotal player for us, really focal point for us,” Fisher added. “She’s certainly a huge momentum changer because she wasn’t afraid to get to the cage and take shots when it mattered.”
For the Owls, the win is a huge confidence boost heading into the Atlantic Ten Conference portion of their schedule.
“This definitely was a push moving forward,” Schweitzer said.
“Now we can focus on the A-10’s a little bit,” Rosen said. “We’ve had a bunch of players out with injuries that hopefully will be returning this weekend.”
