Photo credit: Greg Fiume
By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Lacrosse opened their season in style with a 21-7 domination of Howard on an unseasonably warm February Friday afternoon.
Junior attacker Everly Kessler set the tone with four goals and four assists, both career highs. Her performance was complemented by five goals and an assist from senior midfielder Phoebe Mullarkey.
“I just told them to play confidently because we put in the preparation and it doesn’t matter the opponent.” GW head coach Colleen McCaffrey said. “We go out and play our game.”
The Revolutionaries (1-0) didn’t waste any time getting off the blocks and built a four-goal lead within the first six minutes behind two goals and a bevy of draw controls from junior midfielder Haley Bolton along with suffocating defense. The struggles continued for the Bison (0-1), who have not won a game against D1 opposition since 2014 and found themselves down 8-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Less than halfway into the second quarter the Revs held an 11-1 lead, meaning there would be a running clock the rest of the way. Although no one may have realized it at the time, GW women’s lacrosse was on their way to their first victory to open a season since 2018. By halftime it was 15-2 and with a double digit lead for the rest of the game, GW could go deeper into their bench and give younger players important minutes throughout the second half, something McCaffrey thought was important to “get the jitters out.”
“It was good for them to get game experience and be able to run what we’ve practiced against a different opponent than our defense.” McCaffrey said.
Howard nearly tripled their offensive output in the second half thanks to two goals from freshman midfielder Gabrielle Nelson and three points from freshman attacker Chloe Ronsholdt. But it was too little, too late for the Bison, a program that’s had a winning record just twice in 19 years of existence. GW led 18-4 heading into the fourth quarter and never looked uncomfortable on the way to their biggest margin of victory since 2012 (also against Howard).
The game was uncompetitive virtually from the opening draw and the bright spots were abound for a Revs team beginning year two of the McCaffrey era. The decision to have Bolton take draw controls to combat Gabrielle Nelson paid off early on as the floodgates were opening, and the opportunistic defense translated into free flowing offense for GW all afternoon. The attack dazzled as 10 players got on the scoresheet with a goal or an assist, showcasing the potential of this Revs team under a young coach.
“We have a lot of different strengths in terms of playing from X, off-ball cuts, as well as dodging from up top.” McCaffrey said. “So we run a bunch of different motions and I think trying to get to where our players’ strengths are is how we build that into our offense.”
After easing into the year against their weakest opponent of the season, the Revs plunge into a non conference schedule ripe with challenges. In their seven remaining non-con games, they will play teams from six different conferences, traveling to UMBC, Old Dominion and Youngstown State complemented by home matchups with Canisius, American, William & Mary, and Robert Morris.
“It’s about different combinations of conferences but also the level of play so we can be exposed to different defenses,” McCaffrey said. “But also different physicalities to prepare us for an A10 where we have really strong opponents in UMass and Richmond that we need to prepare ourselves for, but also to give our team a little bit of confidence.”
There are many performances I could highlight, such as junior defender Katie Hipp, who led a strong defensive performance before resting for much of the second half. Haley Bolton was also phenomenal, steadying early troubles in the draw circle and doubling up everyone else in ground balls (not to mention her two goals and two assists). Additionally, it would be a mistake not to mention Quinnipiac graduate transfer attacker Desiree Kleberg, who scored four goals.
But Phoebe Mullarkey put her stamp on the game, scoring five times and dishing out one assist, breaking her career high in goals and points. The Stony Point, New York native hadn’t played in 363 days after suffering a season-ending injury in GW’s opening game against UMBC last season, but wasted no time getting going by scoring less than seven minutes in.
“I was just really happy it went in.” Mullarkey said. “A big focus for me was trying to stay in a flow state because there was so much pressure on me. So I feel like after I scored my first goal, I just felt relieved. I felt like the pressure was off.”
The Revolutionaries will hope Mullarkey can pick up where she left off on Sunday when they take on Canisius, who is yet to play a game this year and the Revs have never played. Opening draw is at 11 AM and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.
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