KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Oberlin College women's lacrosse opened the 2016 campaign with a dominant away performance en route to a 21-4 victory over the Kalamazoo College Hornets on Sunday afternoon.
It took just 32 seconds for senior
Grace Barlow to net her first goal of the season to put the Yeowomen ahead early, and an offensive onslaught was just beginning. In the next 10 minutes, the Oberlin women registered five goals, while keeping the Hornets scoreless.
Barlow followed her inaugural score with the second Oberlin goal at 27:04, before
Maggie Mullard and
Hannah Heinke-Green added two more to push the Yeowomen lead to 4-0. Barlow completed her hat-trick at 23:31 with an assist from Heinke-Green followed closely by scores from
Sara Phister,
Natalie Rauchle and
Suzanna Doak. Rauchle netted her second goal of the day with 14:11 remaining in the first half capping off Oberlin's run of nine unanswered goals.
The Hornets snapped the Oberlin scoring streak and got on the board when they snuck a shot past Oberlin's netminder,
Alexa L'Insalata. L'Insalata would go on to register four saves, while allowing just two goals in 30 minutes between the pipes. At the half, she would be relieved by first-year
Celia Bolgatz. Bolgatz finished with two saves, while allowing two Hornet scores in her debut.
Slightly over two minutes from the Kalamazoo score, Phister tickled the twine once more with a little assistance from Doak. Another Hornet goal led to both Rauchle and Phister firing home their hat-trick goals as the halftime break drew nearer. To close the half, Barlow flung her fourth goal of the day past Kalamazoo's goalie Katie Johnson. The Yeowomen took a staggering 13-2 lead into the intermission.
Doak opened the second half with her second tally of the day and earned her third just minutes later to answered a Hornet score and make the Oberlin advantage 12 at 15-3.
Rauchle cashed in on two more scoring opportunities to make it 17-4 in favor of the Yeowomen. The Oberlin women closed the Sunday afternoon bout with a 5-0 scoring run in the final 9:15 to convincingly take the 2016 lid-lifter from Kalamazoo. In that span, junior
Sloane Garelick, and first-years
Julia Butler and
Hayley Drapkin all netted their first of the year, while Rauchle and Mullard tossed in their fifth and second of the game.
The Yeowomen opened the season in a big way with nine different Oberlin players netting goals. Rauchle, Doak, Barlow and Phister all tallied at least three goals with Rauchle leading the team with a game-high five goals on nine shots. Barlow was the leading point-getter on the day with six points off of four goals and two assists. As a unit, Oberlin outshot the Hornets 46 to 14 while dominating in shots on goal with a 39 to 10 advantage. On the draw, Rauchle and Butler led the team with 5 draw controls each.
The Yeowomen will return to the turf on Wednesday, March 2, when they host Greater Cleveland rival Baldwin Wallace University in the 2016 home opener.
Action from underneath the lights of Bailey Field at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex is scheduled for 6 p.m.
