Clean Sweep for Oxford Lax
The women's blues completed an historic day for Oxford when they beat Cambridge to complete a clean sweep by the Dark Blues in the Varsity Lacrosse Matches.
Following in the footsteps of the men's Blues, the mixed team, and both second teams, the Blues managed to hold onto what was at one stage a huge lead to defeat the tabs in a thrilling encounter at the Parks.
The match was played at a brisk pace and Oxford started brightly in front of a large home crowd. Their early dominance was rewarded when Olivia Finch slung the ball into the Cambridge net inside the first five minutes. Oxford didn't let up and continued to pressurize the Cambridge defence, scoring at regular intervals throughout the first half, with some clinical finishing being shown by Claire Coppel and Aly Rowell in particular.
Both girls netted twice in the first half and Cambridge had no answers to Oxford's smooth passing game and neat stick work. Timeouts were called by the visitors in the hope of disrupting Oxford's rhythm, but they were to no avail as Oxford continued to command the game, with England International Ruth Evans, the blues captain, controlling the game in the middle of the park.
In fact the home side had amassed a 6-0 lead two thirds of the way through the first half when Cambridge managed to score a counter attack goal.
This minor setback didn't really affect Oxford however as they continued to press forward and scored three more goals before half time, including a fantastic solo effort by Cressida Barrett. At the break Oxford had gained a huge 9-1 advantage and things were looking bleak for Cambridge.
The interval obviously helped them regroup, as the second half was a totally different story from the first.
Fiona Macpherson sneaked in early to get Cambridge's momentum going, and they were persistent in keeping possession to build up plays. This served the visitors well as they managed to score four more times in rapid succession, taking the game back to 9-6.
Oxford called timeouts to try and rediscover their first half form and it paid off as Claudia Veritas capitalised on some poor Tab defending, by scoring for Oxford to give them a four-goal cushion.
Cambridge refused to go down without a fight however and kept coming at the home side, and two goals by Rosalind Lloyd to complete her hat trick gave Cambridge hope. However, it was not to be, as Oxford managed to hold on to their lead, winning by 2 goals.
Elsewhere Oxford women's 2nd lacrosse side won the second division of the Midlands conference, finishing the season undefeated.
22nd Apr 2004