William & Mary downs Lancers

Published 8:22 am Monday, March 28, 2022

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The foursome of Sarah Cippolla, Lauren Russell, Belle Martire and Serena Jacobs lifted William & Mary past Longwood women’s lacrosse 19-10 on Wednesday afternoon.

The quartet paced the William & Mary (4-5) attack with a combined 15 goals and five assists, including all 11 goals in the first half, to push past a Longwood squad that came in and battled.

For the Lancers (3-5), it marked the second straight game without injured goalkeeper Amelia Carlile, who leads the Big South in both goals against average and save percentage.

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However, a game Longwood side battled, and Claire Libby led the offense with five goals while also starting as the team’s emergency goalkeeper for a second straight outing. Keelyn Haarhoff took over after halftime, and Libby tied her career high in goals scored in the final 30 minutes of game action.

“Today’s result, in terms of scoring output, was definitely an improvement over the last game, and the team never gave up fighting,” said Longwood head coach Elaine Jones, whose team outscored William & Mary 3-1 in the fourth quarter. “But we are still working on decreasing the number of turnovers we have on the offensive end and through the midfield. William & Mary has a host of strong scoring threats, so it was always going to be a challenge to contain all of them.”

Lauren Cerretani and Haley Moomau flanked Libby by adding a pair of goals apiece, and Emily Cate Smith chipped in three assists in the team’s non-conference finale.

The two sides battled throughout a tight first quarter as William & Mary took a 4-2 lead after 15 minutes behind a pair of goals from Martire. Moomau and Cerretani each fired home a shot to keep Longwood within striking distance.

In the second quarter, the Tribe reeled off seven straight goals to take an 11-2 lead before Cerretani’s tally with five seconds left in the half cut the lead to eight.

Libby came out on fire after halftime, scoring two goals within the first three minutes, but the damage was already done as William & Mary was able to fend off the Lancers enough.

“I’m proud of the effort given by Claire Libby, carrying us in goal for the first and Keelyn Haarhoff stepping in for the second half,” Jones said of her two upperclassmen who again had to split time in goal. “Claire coming on to the field for the second half and scoring five goals gave us a great lift while Keelyn made several key saves down the stretch. As a team, we’re still working on being more attentive to certain aspects of our game, but the lessons we’re learning can only help us as we now turn our attention to conference play next week.”

The Lancers are back in action to open Big South play in a week when they host Radford on Wednesday, March 30. The match begins at 4 p.m. at Elizabeth Burger Jackson Field.