Women’s lacrosse heads into CAC tournament with momentum on their side

By BRITTNEE HAYNES

The University of Mary Washington women’s lacrosse team honored its three seniors – Ashlyn Dacey, Jamie Dillon and Paige Thumel – with a win on Saturday, April 16 at the Battleground AthleticComplex. With a 13-10 win over Marymount University, the Eagles close out their regular season play improving to a 13-3 overall record.

After giving up two goals to Marymount, the Eagles went to work scoring two unanswered goals. Dacey struck first with 16:52 remaining in the first half. Sophomore Holly Hudson followed with a goal to tie the score 2-2. In the last 10 minutes of the first half, Mary Washington scored four more goals, two of which came from Dacey. At the end of the first half, the Eagles had a 6-3 advantage.

In the beginning of the second half, Dacey added to the Eagles’ lead with two more goals. Freshman Mackenzie Maguire also scored, giving the Eagles a 9-3 advantage. Exactly 30 seconds later, Dacey scored another goal to extend the lead to 10-3.

Hudson scored her second goal of the game and freshman Julia Albert followed that with a goal of her own. Dacey went on to score her seventh goal of the game with 5:20 left in the game.

Marymount was able to score a few more goals, but not enough to win. “I had a lot of family in town because it was senior day so I was just happy that they got to see a good game,” Dacey said.

“The best part of my senior game was getting to share it with the other two seniors, Ashlyn Dacey and Jamie Dillion. We’ve been through a lot over the last four years and being able to celebrate all the hard work we’ve put in together was very rewarding,” Thumel said.

Dacey is also the Capital Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week for her impressive 11 goals during CAC play. In addition to her career-high seven goals against Marymount, Dacey scored four goals against No. 15 ranked Christopher Newport in a decisive 12-4 victory earlier in the week.

The win is due to, “all of the hard work we’ve put into this season so far, and all that’s left to do on game day is show up, trust yourself and your teammates and let everything else just fall into place,” Dacey said.

The Eagles carry their momentum from a win on senior day into the Capital Athletic Conference tournament. “We have some really good competition coming up, but in the four years that I’ve played for this team, I think this will be our most successful CAC run yet,” Dacey said. “We have very high expectations for the CAC tournament with the hope to play and win the championship on April 30,” Thumel said.

In CAC play, the win over Marymount lifted the Eagles to a 6-2 conference record, which earned them the third seed in the tournament. The No. 14 ranked Eagles host Marymount again in the first round of the CAC tournament.

“Playoffs are like the beginning of a brand new season and that gives us an edge because we know that every other team we’re going against is working just as hard as we are so that keeps us focused and makes us continue to push ourselves that much harder each and every day,” Dacey said. According to Thumel, the team watches film, studies scouting reports and practices extra hard in preparation for each opponent.