Box Score
Gettysburg, PA — The Messiah College women's lacrosse team faced a tough task Wednesday night, dropping a 19-4 decision to third-ranked Gettysburg College on the road.
The host Bullets (7-0) scored six goals in the game's first seven minutes to essentially put things away, while Messiah (1-2) rode a strong performance from freshman Kara Geiman, who scored three of the Falcons' four goals, all unassisted.
Despite the loss, first-year head coach Heather Greer said that she hopes to build off of playing such tough competition early, as the team will next travel to Florida to face 16th-ranked William Smith College.
"Our overall goal each game is to get better, and I think we are doing that," Greer said. "We've got 10 specific team goals, and today we wanted to go in and succeed at those. While we obviously would have liked to done better on the scoreboard, we did do some positive things today that should help us down the road."
After deflecting the initial shock of Gettysburg's six-goal in seven-minute stretch to open things, senior Bethany Moskevitz took a pass from Geiman and registered Messiah's first goal of the game at the 19:24 mark of the first period.
The Bullets responded with three straight goals in under a minute to pull ahead by a 9-1 count, but Geiman began her streak next, scoring the first of her three solo shots at the 17:46 mark.
Geiman would add another tally just a minute later and a third with 1:58 to play in the first half, concluding the Falcons' offense for the afternoon.
"Kara really exposed their pressure-out defense and played really well for us," Greer said. "We had to change our game plan a bit because of what Gettysburg did defensively, but I thought we did a decent job adjusting. They are a very, very good team."
With the game all but decided at halftime, action slowed considerably in the final 30 minutes, as the teams combined for just 16 shots on goal after 30 in the first period. Junior Jen Venter finished with eight saves in goal, while Messiah picked up 23 ground balls in the contest (Gettysburg fielded 28).
"I thought we did a pretty good job in second-effort plays, so that was a positive," Greer said. "That's a big thing for us. If you make a turnover, you've got to work to get it back. I thought we continued to play hard after making mistakes today."
Messiah will now travel to the Sunshine state for a week-long getaway, with William Smith serving as the Falcons' only opponent during that stretch. The squad will meet the Herons next Thursday in West Palm Beach. Game time is set for 9 a.m.
"We're excited to get away and focus solely on lacrosse for the next week," Greer said. "We hope to use this time to get to know each other better both on and off the field, and that's really the point of the trip. Hopefully it will be good for us as a group."
