On Saturday, the Wildcat lacrosse team hosted the University at Albany Great Danes in the final home game of the regular season. To the dismay of Wildcat fans and players, the Great Danes’ high-powered offense was too powerful for UNH to overcome. The Great Danes cruised to a 12-3 win over the Wildcats at Cowell Stadium.
With the loss on Saturday, UNH now sits at 6-9 overall and 3-2 in America East conference play. The ‘Cats also carry a three-game losing streak into the final game of the regular season next week. Head coach Sarah Albrecht believed that the loss ultimately resulted in the team’s lack of energy against a top-ranked opponent.
“I think our energy was really low today and we didn’t come out to play. Albany is a tough team, they work hard all over the field and they make you work for things,” Albrecht said. “I don’t think we did a good job of executing and taking care of fundamentals.”
Albany seized momentum as soon as the first draw control, and did not look back. Rachel Bowles, Dakotah Savitcheff and Sarah Martin found the back of the net to give the Great Danes a 3-0 lead only 2:14 into the contest.
Devan Miller did her best to spark life into the ‘Cats when she scored her 10th of the season to make the score 3-1 with 18 minutes left to play in the first half. However, the Great Danes concluded the half on an offensive tear.
Albany scored six unanswered goals to end the half with a score of 9-1 in favor of the Great Danes. Albany outshot UNH 20-6 in the first half, and committed only one turnover, as opposed to UNH’s eight.
“Yeah I mean [Albany is] a really great team, athletic team and we knew they were going to be hard coming into it,” senior captain Laura McHoul said.
After two more goals from Savitcheff to open the second half, the ‘Cats ended their scoring drought. Marissa Gurello and Carly Wooters scored back-to-back to make the deficit 12-3. The Wildcats also started to win the ground-ball battle in the waning minutes of the game. The matchup concluded in a 12-3 Albany victory and UNH showed signs of life towards the end of the game, but Albrecht hopes to see consistency in that regard moving forward.
“I think there was a little spurt there, but it’s sustaining that spurt and being consistent throughout the whole entire game with that,” Albrecht said. “I just don’t think that we did that today.”
Following the game, the team honored its three seniors: Hannah Wohltmann, McHoul and Nicole Grote. All three seniors played under Albrecht and the Wildcats for four seasons. When asked about what she will miss most, Grote simply put, “the team…they’re a great group of girls and it’s going to be hard leaving them.”
The team concludes the regular season with a tilt against the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers on Saturday. As the conference standings currently show, the ‘Cats need a win next weekend to secure a playoff spot.
“It’s definitely an important game, and the good thing is we control our destiny with that game,” Albrecht said. “That’s going to be our message throughout the week.”
The Wildcat and the Retrievers face off on Saturday, April 30 at 11 a.m.
