Nottingham Ladies’ Lacrosse 2nds: 11
Warwick Ladies’ Lacrosse: 9

Warwick saw their Trophy Cup hopes thrown into doubt as they narrowly lost out to Nottingham 2nds, in spite of their constant battling to stay in the game. This is not to say that Warwick were outclassed in the slightest, captain Naomi Whittaker and her attack treating the spectators to some top quality Lacrosse.

Helen Simpson started taking the draw like she did so successfully a couple of weeks ago, except her opposite centre this time was much stronger. Despite the loss of most of the draws, excellent work from defenders Louisa Mitchell and Beccy Foden ensured that Warwick won most of the possession. It was this that allowed Warwick to set up their first settled attack around what seemed like a shaky Nottingham defence, and after a few minutes an inside dodge from behind goal by the captain Whittaker saw her score her first of 7 goals. Minutes later, a fantastic feed from Georgie Edewor-Thorley gave Whittaker her second easy goal, putting Warwick in a promising position after 10 minutes at 2-0.

This promise was not to continue for long though, as good attacking from Nottingham gave them 2 goals to get back level with the away side. This was despite the exemplary defence of Louisa Mitchell seen throughout the match and the solid performance of Emma Hunt, collecting nearly every ground ball she went for. The fact that the ball spent so long on the floor allowed the Warwick defence to really excel in the first half, and Hunt’s consistent good work gave Warwick the opportunity to regain possession and go on the attack again. This gave Whittaker another chance to successfully try her dodge from behind goal again and also permitted Bryony Walker to get her name on the scoreboard with another fast accurate feed from Edewor-Thorley.

With this the bench experienced some timing issues – a quarter supposed to last 15 minutes managed to last 25, tiring out both sides. Warwick were to then to experience a lull in their game, as Nottingham constantly piled on the pressure and exposed gaps in the defence. This combined with strong driving from the Nottingham attack gave them a fairly evenly spaced 4 goals, putting them firmly in the lead at 6-4.

The second half was much the same story, a resurgence of Warwick energy adding a sense of potency to the attack, a potency much needed in the face of a stronger and more confident Nottingham defence, who had started triple teaming the ball carrier in an attempt to nullify any drives on goal. 2 further goals from Whittaker and one from Walker, interspersed with a Nottingham goal tied the scores at 7-7. From here Warwick experienced another lull as Nottingham once more went on the offensive, putting 4 past the Warwick ‘keeper Anna Semler. This could have easily been more had Semler not been on astounding form in the second half, denying a massive amount of the Nottingham shots on goal.

At 11-7 in the third quarter all did not look good for Warwick. Warwick, however, once again picked up their game, and an excellent drive from Edewor-Thorley on the right hand side followed by another cutting feed gave Whittaker another goal. In spite of Warwick’s strength, they were not able to bring the score back to level, and another individual goal from Whittaker brought about the final score, Nottingham victors at 11-9.

This has caused a few issues for the team and their Trophy Cup playoff hopes: BUSA will now have to decide whether to award Birmingham or Warwick fifth place in light of a few discrepancies. Captain Naomi Whittaker was however massively impressed with the team’s performance, “Unfortunately we were missing 4 players today, and 3 of our players were slightly ill. I’m sure that with a full squad like the one we fielded against Birmingham we could have come away with it today. At the end of the day though everyone had a really good match and it was a really good game.”