The Plattsburgh State women’s lacrosse team’s inaugural game against SUNY Canton on Wednesday ended in a 14-4 defeat for the Cards, but the team seeks to use it as a stepping stone to help them get into a rhythm.
PSUC got off to a slow part, that head coach Julia Decker attributes to a combination of nerves, the 5-degree weather conditions in Canton and the players not being used to such an physically aggressive playing style.
The Cards eventually found their footing in the last 5 minutes of the game, scoring the final three goals of the match.
“We finally found our rhythm in the last five minutes of the game, but by then it was too little too late,” Decker said.
Junior attack, midfield and defenseman Leah Herman said the team has very good chemistry but need to learn how to operate together more effectively.
“We need to work with each other a little better, and learn how to read each other a little more,” Herman said.
Herman also agrees that the last 5 minutes was the team’s strongest point.
“I think at that point we were 13 points down, but that didn’t stop us from trying our best,” Herman said.
Junior defenseman Katelyn McCabe said the team never stopped working together, which is why the last few minutes were so successful.
“We never stopped encouraging each other, and we never gave up,” McCabe said. “Even when we were 13-1.”
Head coach Julia Decker said the goal for their next game is to play a “full game of Plattsburgh women’s lacrosse.”
“We really looking to establish an identity and that’s just gonna take an extra couple games for us to show who we want to be as a team, and I don’t think we showed that during the first half and most of the second,” Decker said.
Decker said the team will concentrate on getting warmed up a lot sooner and play through the whole 60 minutes, while McCabe said carrying the intensity they achieved in the last 5 minutes of this game to the next.
The Cards are back on the road tomorrow to face The Sage Colleges in Troy at 1 p.m, followed by another match on March 11. against Norwich University at the Field House
