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| Photo by JUSTIN BEAVERS Senior midfielder Ryan Naftzinger rips a shot through Elizabethtown’s defense. |
After starting the season 0-2, Virginia Wesleyan’s men’s lacrosse team finally snapped a 6-game losing streak that dated back to the 2003 season. The Marlins defeated the Gophers of Goucher College 6-5 in triple overtime in their home opener on Feb. 28. “It was definitely a relief because we were 0-2 at the time,” said Assistant Coach Jason Archbell. “I didn’t realize until after the game how close it was to going into a fourth overtime.” Senior captain Ryan Bush put the Marlins ahead 1-0 during a man-up opportunity late in the first quarter. Bush’s goal was the only goal of the game until Goucher sophomore Travis Witham scored at 9:46 in the third quarter. Sophomore Will Mumford scored a goal with 6:43 remaining in the third quarter to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. However, Goucher went on to score two goals before the end of the third quarter 3-2 to take the lead. The Marlins took advantage of an early Goucher penalty in the fourth quarter when Bush scored again to tie the game 3-3. The Marlins reclaimed the lead when senior Corey Mahoney scored with 5:39 left in the game. Mahoney’s goal was the second of his career.
“I was really excited,” said Mahoney. “I knew I helped my team because it put us ahead. At that point, I knew we were going to win the game.” Goucher scored two goals late in the fourth quarter to make the score 5-4. Junior Cameron McKay forced the game into overtime when he scored with 45 seconds left in the game. “I didn’t think it was going to be counted because I thought I may have been in the crease,” said McKay, who did an inside roll, dove and shot the ball one-handed. The game remained scoreless through two overtimes. McKay scored the decisive goal with 26 seconds left in the third overtime off a pass from senior captain Ryan Naftzinger.
“All I know is that the defenseman went up to Zinger and it left me open,” said McKay. “I wasn’t far away, but I wasn’t close. I just ripped it and it went in between the goalie’s legs.” Their second win of the season came just six days later when they defeated the Blue Jays of Elizabethtown College 14-12. Elizabethtown jumped out to a quick lead, scoring three goals within the first three minutes of the game. However, the Marlins began coming back with a goal in the first quarter by sophomore Dan Hofmeister, who led all scorers with four goals. Senior Connor MacBeth, junior Brendan Rooney and Bush each had two goals. Junior John Snevely, freshman Dan Feathers, McKay and Naftzinger each had one goal. Greensboro College ended Wesleyan’s winning streak on Mar. 12 when the visiting Pride defeated the Marlins 8-4. Hofmeister and Bush scored the team’s only goals, recording two apiece. Bush also had two assists.
On Mar. 20, Wesleyan almost upset Roanoke College, who is currently ranked ninth. However, Roanoke came away with a 13-12 overtime win. “The Roanoke game was a big building block, even though we lost,” said Mahoney. “We found out something big about ourselves, that being that we can play any team on our schedule and beat them.” Roanoke never trailed the game until late in the fourth quarter. Entering the fourth quarter, Roanoke led 7-5, and got the scoring underway at just 46 seconds into the fourth quarter. Hofmeister and Bush connected twice within 12 seconds, making the score 8-7. Roanoke scored once again to increase their lead by two, but sophomore Colin Kelly scored his first goal of the season to bring the Marlins back within one goal. Hofmeister scored the game-tying goal on a man-up opportunity. Snevely scored the go-ahead goal about a minute and ten seconds after Hofmeister’s goal and Mumford increased the Marlins’ lead 12 seconds after Snevely’s goal, making the score 11-9. Bush netted the Marlins’ final goal of the rally with 3:36 left in the game during a man-up opportunity.
“I felt there was a lot of pressure on me and the defense,” said freshman goalie Tyler Sothoron who entered the game at halftime. “The offense did their job. It was our time to step it up on our side of the field.” After Bush’s goal, Roanoke started a rally of their own, scoring three goals within the last 2:52 of the game, the last two occurring at 13 and six seconds left in the game. Chris Keating’s goal with six seconds remaining forced the game into overtime. Roanoke’s offense took control of overtime, outshooting Wesleyan 8-1. Sothoron made critical back-to-back saves to keep Marlins alive. However, Roanoke’s Kris Davis finally broke through and scored the game-winning goal with only eight seconds left in overtime. The Marlins next game is on Saturday, Mar. 26 against St. Mary’s College at 1 p.m.
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Photo by BEN RUEHLMANN Sophomore Megan Zirkle follows through with after a hard swing. |
Virginia Wesleyan's softball team got their season off to a rough start. In their season-opener, Christopher Newport University defeated the Lady Marlins 7-0 and 9-0 in a doubleheader on Mar. 2. The Lady Marlins only managed four runs in each of the games. "That game was very disappointing because CNU is our biggest rival," said senior captain Devin Allen. "It was our first game and we couldn't get our bats going, but that will hopefully change once we start playing together." Coming off their season-opening losses, the Lady Marlins participated in their first of two regular-season tournaments. On Mar. 5 and 6, Wesleyan held their annual Atlantic vs. East Challenge at City View Park in Virginia Beach. The tournament consisted of conference champions Christopher Newport University, Huntingdon College and Chowan College and nationally ranked Moravian College and Salisbury University, the 2003 NCAA Division III national champions.
Wesleyan opened up the tournament with an 8-0 win over Huntingdon. Sophomore Becky Sowell pitched all six innings and only allowed 3 hits. Sophomore Cara Byrd and Sowell led the team in RBIs with three each. Following their win, Wesleyan faced Rowan University. In a closely contested game, Rowan defeated Wesleyan 1-0 in extra innings. On the second day, Wesleyan defeated Albright College 7-5. The Lady Marlins led throughout the entire game, not surrendering a run until the bottom of the sixth inning. Albright showed signs of a comeback, but Wesleyan held them off for the win. In their final game of the tournament, Wesleyan headed towards winning a second game. They gave up six runs in the first inning, but started a comeback by scoring three runs in the fourth inning. Palm Beach Atlantic added six more runs to their total, three in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and two in the sixth to secure them a 12-3 win.
"I think being our first tournament we came out with the jitters," said Byrd. "We are still molding together as a unit. Once we get out bats consistently going, we will be great." After the Atlantic vs. East Challenge, the Lady Marlins returned to home-field action as they faced the Colonials of Wilkes University. The Lady Marlins split a doubleheader with Wilkes, winning the first game 7-3 and losing the second game 10-5. In the first game, the Lady Marlins scored three runs in each the second and sixth innings and had one in the fourth. Sophomore Nichol Moeller struck out seven batters, a new strikeout career high. In the second game, Wesleyan led until Wilkes scored six runs in the top of the sixth inning to give the Colonials a 9-5 led. Wilkes added one more in the seventh to secure the win. Like Moeller, sophomore Cris Long set a new personal strike-out record, striking out five of Wilkes' batters. Only one week after their first tournament, the Lady Marlins played in their final regular-season tournament, the Salisbury Seagull Invitational. The Lady Marlins were 3-1 in the tournament, defeating King's College, Elizabethtown College and Manhattanville College. Their only loss came at the hands of York College. On the first day of play, Wesleyan narrowly defeated King's College, four-time defending Middle Atlantic Corporation Freedom Conference champion, 4-3.
York College had a four-run second inning that kept them ahead of Wesleyan, 5-3. The Lady Marlins would get two runs in the fourth, but York added one run in the bottom of the fourth to give them the slight edge over Wesleyan, 6-5. The second day of play proved to be a little easier for the Lady Marlins. They beat Elizabethtown 8-5 and Manhattanville 9-0. "In the tournament, we came together as a team collectively and hit the ball really well," said Allen. Over Spring Break, the Lady Marlins opened up play against other Old Dominion Athletic Conference teams. They faced last year's conference champion, Emory & Henry College in a doubleheader on Mar. 15. Emory & Henry defeated Wesleyan in both games, 3-1 and 8-0. The Lady Marlins only managed one run and nine hits out of both games.
"We really wanted to play well versus Emory & Henry because last year we lost to them in the ODAC finals," said assistant coach Josh McElheny. "We played well, but couldn't get hits when we needed them. Deep down, we know we could have beaten them." On Mar. 20, the Lady Marlins returned for home-field play for a doubleheader against the Quakers of Guilford College. The Lady Marlins defeated Guilford 5-0 and 6-5. Moeller pitched a complete game in the first match and only allowed five hits and recorded five strikeouts. Guilford looked to almost come away with a win in the second game after scoring five runs in the sixth inning. However, Wesleyan scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the bottom of the seventh to win 6-5.
The Lady Marlins continued their winning streak on Mar. 21 by defeating Randolph-Macon Woman's College in a doubleheader, 16-1 and 8-0. Solid pitching by Moeller and Long only allowed Randolph-Macon Woman's to register a total of one hit for both games. Moeller only had a single hit off her in the first inning of the first game. Long pitched a no-hitter, the first no-hitter since Kelly Rust pitched one on Mar. 9, 2001.
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