Box Score
Glenside, PA — So much for a perceived offensive funk within the Messiah women's lacrosse program.
The Falcons earned their first win of the 2010 season Thursday afternoon, opening up their MAC Conference schedule with a 21-7 drubbing of host Arcadia University — the most goals scored in a single game under the tutelage of third-year head coach Heather Greer.
After averaging nearly 14 goals per game in last season's MAC Championship season, Messiah (1-2, 1-0) had scored half that amount in its first two games of the year.
No so Thursday afternoon at Arcadia's Kuch Field, however, as Greer's club scored seven of the game's first nine tallies 18 minutes in, never looking back in a dominating performance.
“Of course it feels good to get a conference win, but we still have a lot we can improve on,” Greer said. “I wasn't entirely pleased with our play in the first half, but we got after it in the second.”
Despite Messiah's quick start, Arcadia (0-2, 0-1) made it a game with five minutes to play in the first half, scoring three quick goals to pull within a 7-4 deficit.
It was then that sophomore Rachel Dirksen took over, however, scoring half of her season-high six goals — all coming in a three-minute stretch.
When sophomore Meghan Doolittle converted a Dirksen feed just seconds later, Messiah had regained an 11-4 lead. Following another draw control taken by the Falcons, freshman Cecilia Kjellman tacked on an unassisted score, making it a 12-4 game.
Even a late first-half goal from the hosts mattered little, as freshman Maddie Comfort scored off a pass from Dirksen with just 12 seconds remaining before the half, giving Messiah a 13-5 lead at the intermission.
It would get worse from there.
The Falcons scored the first eight goals of the second half, riding the momentum sustained by winning 26 of the game's total 31 draw controls. Dirksen, Comfort and Kjellman each scored twice in the final 30 minutes, as Doolittle and sophomore Rachel Coyle each added one goal.
Dirksen finished with the aforementioned six scores to complement five draw controls and four assists, while Coyle scored three to go with seven draws to her credit. Comfort had a career-high five scores off of 10 shots, while Kjellman posted a hat trick off of just six shot attempts.
Dirksen and sophomore Megan Bovenzi each scooped four ground balls (the team came up with 19), while Coyle collected three.
“Today we had a huge sophomore showing,” Greer said. “Dirk(sen) and RC (Coyle) played aggressively from start to finish. We all know how important possession is, and between the two of them they hustled to almost 50 percent of the draws. Doo(little) also turned it on today and was a key part of our transition game. She is not a flashy player but gets the job done time and time again.”
Messiah's 21 points upped the single-game mark for offensive production under Greer by one goal, as the Falcons had beaten Manhattanville College by 20-10 scores both last year and in 2008. Dirksen's six scores equaled her single-game career high, a number she matched last year in a 12-17 loss to Babson College Mar. 19.
Greer and company will now prep for a flight to Florida, where the team will play a pair of games next week: Messiah will take on William Smith College at 11 a.m. Tuesday and Amherst College at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Both games will take place in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“We are looking forward toward going after a pair of non-conference games next week,” Greer said. “Our goal is to build off not just today's game, but what we've been able to do in practice. We'll have two good tests for us in Florida.”
