The UNH women’s lacrosse team opened their season in a cold Durham, NH against the Merrimack Warriors (0-1) this past Tuesday. It was the first game played at Tucker field as the snow was plowed to the sides to make the field playable.
This is Merrimack’s first year in Division I, so it should be interesting to see how their season goes.
To start the game, the Warriors jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Wildcats were able to battle back quickly to cut the lead to one. The Warriors were strong in the first half as they had three different two-goal leads.
The Wildcats went on a run to end the half, scoring three consecutive goals in 87 seconds to take the lead but the Warriors were able to tally one of their own before halftime, evening the score at five apiece.
The ‘Cats switched up goalies at halftime and senior Amanda Gottlieb entered the game. She played the entire half and tallied six saves and only allowed four goals. She was outstanding with a .600 save percentage and kept the Wildcats in the lead for most of the half. She was able to keep them scoreless in the final ten minutes of the game, securing the win for the ‘Cats. Junior midfielder Julia Neyland gave UNH the lead only three minutes into the half and they never looked back as they outscored the Warriors 10-4 in the second half, sealing the win.
The Wildcats totaled 29 shots and were able to score 15 goals, but Merrimack never went away as every time there was a Wildcats goal, the Warriors were quick to answer. Both teams were able to score while on the player disadvantage but weren’t able to score with the player advantage. The ‘Cats were able to hold the Warriors to only four goals in the second half and nine in total. They were able to get production from multiple players, as four players were able to score multiple goals. Five of them came from sophomore midfielder Emily Curtis, four from Neyland and two each from junior midfielder Elizabeth Blanding and sophomore attacker Lily Powell.
The Wildcats move to 1-0 on the year as the team returns to action this week at Iona College, and they will come back home to face the UConn Huskies on Feb. 23.
