Sports
Women’s lacrosse to face No. 7 Trinity in final regular season game
By Henry Shuldiner ’19
April 21, 2016
Tags sports
The women’s lacrosse regular season is coming to end after a strong second-half surge. The Continentals have only suffered four losses thus far, all to ranked opponents. The team has scored 161 goals overall, good for an average of 11.5 goals per game. These impressive accolades have earned Hamilton the No. 12 spot in Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association’s most recent ranking.
Reigning All-American midfielder Morgan Fletcher ’17 leads the team in goals, notching 30 to get along with 11 assists. Fellow midfielder Darby Philbrick ’18 has been keeping pace, however, netting 25 goals of her own. Attacker Caroline McCarthy ’16 has racked up 24 assists, a team high, as well as 13 goals. Casey File ’17 has added 22 goals, the third most for the Continentals this year. Goalkeeper Hannah Burrall ’19 has made 60 saves so far while allowing 61, landing her save percentage at a very solid 49.6 percent.
The level of competitiveness in the NESCAC is high, as all of the team’s losses have come in conference contests. Despite their ranking, the Continentals currently sit sixth in the conference standings with a NESCAC record of 5-4, 1.5 games behind Amherst and Colby for a home playoff game. However, with just one more conference game left against Trinity, Hamilton will hit the road for the first round of the playoffs.
After suffering back-to-back losses to Amherst and Bates, the team went on to win their next three games against Tufts, Williams, and Connecticut College, beating the latter two handily. Their short win streak was brought to a halt, however, last Sunday at Middlebury. After the disappointing 14-4 loss to the second ranked team in the country, the team bounced back to their winning ways, defeating Ithaca 15-7. The final game of the regular season comes in the form of a tough NESCAC matchup against No. 7 Trinity College. Both teams will be looking for victories as Trinity hopes to maintain their second place position behind Middlebury in conference, and Hamilton looks to move past Bates to the fifth spot.
The men’s lacrosse team had a great start to the season winning three of its first four games but has unfortunately found it hard to continue its winning ways since then. The team has lost their last nine games. However, six of these games were against nationally ranked opponents. Seven of the last nine came against NESCAC opponents, including five teams ranked on the USILA Coaches’ Poll. This simply proves the extremely tough level of competition the Continentals face throughout the season, as well as reaffirming the consensus that the NESCAC is clearly the most competitive conference in all of Division III men’s lacrosse.
Hamilton has scored 123 goals so far this season, giving them an average of 9.46 goals per game. Senior co-captain Sam Sweet ’16 has scored 24 times this season and assisted on 22 goals, landing himself at an impressive 46 points of the season. First-year phenom Clay McCollum ’19 is having a breakout season, already having scored 22 goals and adding nine assists in his first year for the Continentals. J.D. Brachman ’17 is also having a great year, netting 21 goals and dishing out eight assists, totaling 29 points, the third most for Hamilton.
With a 3-10 record overall and a 1-8 record in the conference, Hamilton sits in 10th place out of 11 teams in the NESCAC, only ahead of Colby, who have failed to win a game against a conference opponent this season. The Continentals are mathematically eliminated from the NESCAC playoffs, trailing Connecticut College by two conference wins, with only one NESCAC matchup remaining on the schedule. Both teams will close out NESCAC competition against Trinity on April 23.