[NU Sports] Squandered a lead?

[Roy S. Lamberton]

Confirms what I thought.

NU had trouble with draw controls in the first half against UNC also. But they came out in
the 2nd half with some adjustments, and dominated that part of the game in the 2nd half.

Using more subs early might make it seem like they "ran out of gas" during the end of the
half but Amonte-Hiller is some kind of Lacrosse Guru - almost everything she does
eventually works to the Cats' advantage.

With all these games at the end of the season at home, does that mean they'll be on the
road at the end next year? I wonder.

rsl

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-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Maycock [mailto:tkmaycock at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 10:30 AM
To: Roy S. Lamberton; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Squandered a lead?

>Did Amonte-Hiller use her 2nd string more of the game? Or maybe Women's 
>Lacrosse is just that explosive this year.


The Cats definitely used a deeper bench in this game, with some players getting in early
who I don't think saw the field at all on Friday night. I'm sure Kelly was trying to
offset the fatigue factor. I actually thought they might struggle early, coming off a very
hard-fought game against an elite opponent, but the reverse was true: they were incredibly
sharp early on, winning all the draws and scoring at will with precision passing and
shooting. It was later that they seemed to run out of steam a bit. I'm sure fatigue kicked
in at some point. The fact that KAH used the deep bench right from the start probably paid
off late in the game. 

The tide turned when JH started winning all the draws, largely on contested ground balls.
Fatigue? Lack of effort and focus? Hard to say, but the Cats were definitely outplayed for
a while there. At least a couple of the goals came on fast break situations off scrambles
for the draw, but in general our D did not play well during JH's run. They were scoring
much too easily, and had a fairly incredible shooting percentage (12 goals on only 19
shots). 

The interesting strategic move came when Amonte-Hiller put Harrington in to face guard
Hopkins' best play-maker, Taylor D'Amore. Although D'Amore only had 1 goal and 1 assist
prior to that point, Harrington's ability to take D'Amore completely out of the offense
really seemed to really disrupt their flow. I believe Harrington came in when it was
11-11, and Hopkins didn't score again until very late. The fact that the Cats started
winning draws again was a big factor, but Harrington clearly made a difference--this on
the heels of her lock-down performance against UNC's Zimmerman on Friday. 

I think the upshot is that JH is a good team (they beat the Cats last year), particularly
on offense, and the Cats probably weren't at their best after the big night against UNC.
But the Cats came through in the end, and the undefeated season rolls on. Big game against
Florida next Saturday. 

FYI, I think the Hopkins game is being replayed on BTN this week--Tuesday maybe?

Tom