Women's lacrosse opens season with loss

The Delaware women's lacrosse team opened its 2011 season with a disappointing loss to the defending national champion Maryland 17-8 Wednesday afternoon at Delaware Stadium.

The Hens, playing their first game under new head coach Kateri Linville and their first on the artificial turf at Delaware Stadium, were led by seniors Ali Libertini and Corin Drost who had four and three goals respectively.

For the Terrapins, currently ranked first in the IWLCA coaches' poll, junior Kari Ellen Johnson and sophomore Katie Schwarzmann tallied five goals each while sophomore Alex Aust chipped in four as Maryland moved to 2-0 this season.

"For us, it was about getting better," Linville said. "We opened our fall against Maryland, and we lost to them 21-8, so today was an improved performance. We talked about coming out start-to-finish and competing, and we came out and won the first couple of draws and got a couple good looks at cage. Didn't hit our shots, and we lost momentum in the middle of the first half and we have to get better there."

Maryland raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game with two goals from Aust and one from Schwarzmann.

Libertini, Delaware's leading returning scorer, then pulled one back for the Hens before the Terrapins went on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 12-1. Delaware then scored two more goals before the half.

The Hens had a much-improved second-half performance, tying the period 5-5 and outshooting the Terrapins 13-7. Delaware also won the ground ball battle 8-1 and draw controls 8-3. Drost added her second goal of the game with 21:44 remaining to make it 16-4. The team ended the game on a 4-0 run with Drost getting her third goal before Libertini scored three straight goals, one of them coming from a behind-the-back shot.

"We had some great moments," Drost said. "When we played our game, we stuck with it and definitely pulled out some awesome plays. We improved on everything we could, and I think we can walk off the field with our heads held high."

Linville praised the performances of Libertini, Drost and Jeffers as well as freshman Bridget Burns who collected a team-high three ground balls and senior Holly Burman, who had two shots and a couple of goals disallowed for crease violations.

Linville also said that the game would be good for the Hens in the long-run.

"We'll use it to get better," she said. "We definitely ended the game with momentum and confidence that should carry us into the next game. I'm happy because I think we improved and we've improved against a great team. So that's a good sign but we still have a lot of work to do."

Delaware is back in action at 1 p.m. Saturday at LaSalle.