James Aris reports as Warwick Women’s Lacrosse team suffer a substantial defeat against an unforgiving and far superior Loughborough.

The women’s Lacrosse team left their first game of the season holding their heads high, despite their sizeable loss at the hands of a highly skilled and well trained Loughborough team.
60 minutes of extremely wet Lacrosse gave a recently relegated Loughborough team an opportunity to show off their experience and mastery of the basics as they proceeded to outclass a relatively new and fresh Warwick team, in the process proving that their four consecutive years as BUSA champions from 2002-2005 was not undeserved. 
           
The draw saw Loughborough obtain possession, from the off demonstrating their dictation of the midfield play that was to follow. Within a minute they had already settled their first attack and quickly spotted the gaps in the Warwick defence. Despite a good save by the Warwick ‘keeper Anna Semler, a good interception by Loughborough’s Hannah Barnsley on the clear followed by a cutting feed to attacker Kat Lacey provided her with enough time to get a shot off, placing it in the bottom right of the goal. Loughborough immediately extended this lead with a fantastic individual goal off the draw by Barnsley. The next few minutes looked promising for Warwick, with Emilia Reid and Natasha Jones linking well to create a close miss from Reid, unfortunately going over on her ankle in the process and causing Warwick to lose one of their most experienced players.
           
In spite of a number of good stick checks and aggressive defending by Emma Hunt and Becky Foden, the away side were obviously in control of the game: the rest of the first half being made up of Loughborough working the free space in midfield and exploiting the gaps in defence. Nevertheless, the first half was interspersed with sporadic Warwick possession, seeing surging runs from Georgie Thorley and Bryony Walker, the latter being very unlucky not to score. Spectators were also lucky to see the more violent side of ladies Lacrosse, with both teams not letting the ball go without a great deal of a fight. Warwick experienced more problems though, as they were obliged to play the last few minutes with only eleven players on the pitch as a result of Bryony Walker’s shot unfortunately hitting a Loughborough defender in the forehead, meaning Warwick were a player down for the duration of the penalty and Walker, another experienced player, could not return to the pitch. Loughborough capitalised on this advantage, putting a further two past the Warwick keeper before the half time whistle went, leaving the home side 10-0 down.

The second half saw much less violence, a more settled game, and a much higher standard of women’s Lacrosse. It also saw Warwick raising their game, working the midfield well with Louisa Mitchell doing a good job in holding possession and setting up the Warwick attacks. However with the loss of Georgie Thorley to injury Warwick’s attack was almost completely deficient of its normal experience, and the home side were unable to convert any opportunity they had. This was juxtaposed with the Loughborough attackers who similarly raised the bar, the second half bearing witness to some brilliant offensive set plays, with Lacey, Barnsley and Sam Block all showing excellent individual skill and shooting ability. Lacey especially worked the crease extremely well, and with the fellow attackers saw that Warwick were suitably punished for any mistakes made, tying up the game with a more than comfortable 18-0 victory.

Warwick captain Naomi Whittaker seemed content at the result, with only positive things to say, “They were fit, skilful, and had no weak links in their team, and they had the advantage of a good coach and had some really good set plays. We were outdone in terms of our fitness and our basics, and if we work on these I’m sure we will get a much better result next week against Northampton”.