Women's lacrosse on verge on promotion

University of Sheffield 1sts 4 - 13 University of York 1sts

York’s Women’s Lacrosse team came a step closer to promotion with a fantastic display against Sheffield last week. With York in second and Sheffield in third only on goal difference both teams knew that the winner would likely go up; a real six-pointer!

The day didn’t start as York would have liked with a last minute bus change and then getting lost en route meaning that they had a mere 15 minute warm up before kick-off. It didn’t seem to affect the team however and within the first five minutes all of the players’ nerves disappeared as the belief that they could win kicked in. Within the first quarter York had taken a comfortable three goal lead with Sheffield unable to break down York’s settled defence. This forced Sheffield into a time out in order to try and regroup.

It was to no avail however as by half time York led 7-1 after some clinical shooting from Liz Chan and Emily Lingard, and had it not been for impressive ‘keeping from the Sheffield goalkeeper then things could have been a lot worse for the home team. While the half time whistle was welcomed by Sheffield, York who had the momentum perhaps would have preferred continuing on. Despite a high level of confidence during the half time talk, the momentum was lost and in the third quarter Sheffield responded to bring the score to 8-3, with their centre in particular starting to exert her influence on the game.

York had got slightly complacent and it took a very vocal time out from the coach Chris Weiner to get everybody’s focus back on the task ahead. It did the trick however as York were shortly back on track and the goals started to flow again. York’s midfield was undoubtedly a part of this with both the attacking and defending midfielders in the form of fresher Allie Parisatti-Slack, Kyria Lindsay and Elsie Blackshaw constantly running the ball down the pitch into the attacking third, exploiting York’s superior fitness.

It wasn’t all about the attack though as the defence put on what was arguably the best performance of the season. With the exception of Durham the defence have rarely been challenged this season so the question of whether it would cope with an organised attack was a big one which was compounded by the fact that first team regular Sophie Pickup was absent due to illness forcing Elsie Blackshaw to slot in the midfield.

There was no need to worry however as Sheffield just couldn’t break York down with fast breaks being channelled down the sideline, cutters well marked and some brilliant double teaming by Rebecca Chalk and Izzy Miller. Where York were particularly successful was in noticing that there were a couple of key Sheffield players and totally taking them out of the game rendered the opponents harmless, and in doing so frustrated Sheffield even more.

The final score was an impressive 13-4 which took York above Sheffield in the league and has taken the pressure off next week’s final match against Hull who are on -3 points having not won any games and suffering one forfeit. It was a fantastic team display and bodes well for the challenges that a higher league could throw at York next season.

Team List: Christiana Hambro, Rebecca Chalk, Serena Franklin, Izzy Miller, Suzannah Davis, Elsie Blackshaw, Rose Morrison, Allie Parisatti-Slack, Kyria Lindsay, Helen Streeter, Emily Lingard, Liz Chan.

Player of the Match: Allie Parisatti-Slack

The Women’s Lacrosse team host Hull this afternoon on 22 Acres, starting at 2pm. Support for their promotion push is welcomed!

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