After our disappointing performance in the snow, last Saturday, we all looked forward to hitting the reset button and moving forward. Our practices were markedly more intense, competitive and focused. There was greater attention to detail and more energy in everything we did. I think we were all hopeful that, all of this would translate into a strong performance against Roberts Wesleyan, Thursday afternoon.

Both teams started slowly, and we trailed by 2 – 1 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter belonged to the Red Hawks, who opened up an 8 – 3 lead by half time. The Lady Lions opened the second half with two goals, closing the gap to 8 – 5, with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter. At this point, I thought “if we can get the next goal, and only be down by two, we would still have a chance”. It was not to be, as the Visitors scored four of the next five goals for a 12 – 6 lead, with less than nine minutes to play in the game. The Lions played hard to the end, but fell by a final score of 13 – 7.

I have spent the past few days digesting, this most recent setback, and trying to analyze what happened against Roberts Wesleyan, and in the past three weeks. Like almost all of our games, this season, we played lots of good lacrosse, in all facets of the game. But we were not able to string enough of those stretches together and had breakdowns at crucial points in the game. The Red Hawks are a very good team, that plays a unique and difficult to solve, defense. They are very competent in all parts of the game and do not beat themselves. We just weren’t able to match them in this one.

So we have lost our first two conference games, putting ourselves in a tough spot, going forward. We have lost five of our past six games, overall and cannot seem to find our Mojo – you know, that hard to define quality, that any successful team needs. It is difficult to explain what it is, but when you have it going, you know it. It isn’t just “momentum” or “flow” or a “rhythm” or a “groove” or “being n the zone” (though maybe it is a little of all of those things). I think of it as a kind of collective positive energy that seems to guide a team through important moments. I am still confident in our team and believe we will find our Mojo and get this thing turned around.

HAPPY EASTER and GO LIONS!