Quick Start Gives Girls Lacrosse Senior Day Win

Westwood's varsity girls lacrosse team closed out its home schedule Tuesday evening with a Senior-Day victory against Hopkinton, 18-10. 

The win didn’t come easy for Westwood, however, and mirrored the last time the two teams met, when the Wolverines squeaked out a 14-10 victory.

Westwood’s Kate Rich scored two goals in the first two minutes, which looked to be the tone early for the Wolverines until Hopkinton’s Eliza Carroll cut the lead in half just five minutes later.

Sarah Biron then put Westwood on top 3-1 three minutes later, as Laura McHoul raced the length of the field and found her cutting in front of the net.

“Our speed through the transition is great and once you get into the offensive zone, all you need to do is one quick move and we got right by them,” said senior attack Emily McGrail.

The goal started a 9-3 Westwood run to close out the half, which included five from Rich and the final three from the Wolverines, keeping the momentum on their side heading into the break.

Amidst the excitement surrounding the home team, Hopkinton senior Brooke Rudden notched two goals in the half, the second of which broke the all-time Hiller record for goals in a career with 232.

After quick scores from Biron and McGrail just two minutes into the second half, Hopkinton head coach Jodi Dolan had seen enough and called timeout.

“We were standing around, we were throwing into sticks and they were just out-hustling us,” Dolan said. "I called the timeout and reminded them of all the things we needed to do to stay in the game.”

Out of the timeout, the Hiller defense finally came alive and limited Westwood’s offense to just one score over the next 10 minutes, in which time Rudden added two more goals to her eventual total of five.

“She was very tough,” said Westwood head coach Leslie Frank. “We were trying to do everything right and she was able to get through us. I think a lot of it was her left hand. I’m not sure if we’re not used to playing lefties, but that’s what we are going to work on tomorrow.”

“She’s a great player,” added McGrail who put in four goals of her own. "She knows how to work the crease and you always need to keep a double on her.”

Westwood scored just seven times in the second half, which was largely in part to the phenomenal play of Hiller goalkeeper Jackie Chirco, who Dolan said is playing her best lacrosse of the season.

“(Jackie) is twice the goalie she was in the beginning of the season and is peaking at the right time," Dolan said. "She had three interceptions and no turnovers and had some saves from point-blank range. She’s awesome.”

Chirco had 10 saves in the second half and 14 overall, the majority of which were in fact from point-blank range.

A fraction of her success was thanks to her defense for taking Rich out of the game. After five first-half goals, Rich was held scoreless in the second and was limited to very few open chances in front of the net, something that could’ve been symbolic of the Wolverine second half overall.

“I think they had intensity and we thought the game was over,” said Frank about her team’s second half performance. “We need to find a way to keep the intensity throughout and that’s something we talked about in the postgame.”

Despite the stellar second-half performance by the Hillers, the early deficit was just too much to overcome and Westwood held on for an 18-10 win.

“We gave them a four-goal game and eight tonight," Dolan said. "I was hoping it would be a little closer but the second half was indicative of what we are capable of. All the top D-2 teams have played Westwood and they’ve all come in second and we gave them one of the better games this year. If we can play at that level we did in the last 20 minutes, we have a chance to do some damage in tournament.”

Aside from Rudden’s five goals and Carroll’s score early, Hannah Gibney had two goals and Tess Chandler and Meredith Clark each had one.

For Westwood, Biron finished with three, Jamison O’Neil had two, and Kim Egizi, Shelly Walsh, Ela Hazar and Marina Burke all had one.