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Lacrosse season in full swing after successful Florida trip
By Michael Straw
On March 27, 2012
Buffalo State's women's lacrosse team entered their spring break trip to Florida with an unblemished 4-
0 record. Playing in the Florida sun would change that.
The Bengals started out by losing their first two matchups to two top-ranked teams, No. 7 Colby (Maine)
and No. 11 Amherst (Mass.), 17-8 and 16-9, respectively.
"The numbers are not indicative of how we played," coach Meg Stevens said. "They were a tough two
teams."
In its first game, the Bengals found themselves in a quick hole as the Mules came racing out to a 7-1 lead
on their way to a 9-3 halftime advantage.
Senior Kendyl Clarkson, who became just the second Bengal ever to record 300 career points, said the
team didn't come in ready to play their game.
"We weren't composed enough," she said.
Colby came out in the second half and added four more goals to push their lead to ten.
The Bengals tried to make a comeback, cutting the lead to six with four unanswered goals in a five-
minute span, but it wasn't enough as the Mules added four more goals to cap off the win.
The team then went into their matchup against Amherst looking to rebound from its first loss of the
season.
Buffalo State started the game strong and remained tied with Amherst at two halfway through the first
half. Then the floodgates opened.
Amherst scored six of the next seven goals to go up 8-3 on the Bengals late in the opening half. Buffalo
State cut the lead to three heading into the second stanza, but it was the closest they would come to the
Lady Jeffs.
Amherst scored the opening two goals of the second half to up their lead to 10-5 before outscoring the
Bengals 8-4 the rest of the way.
"They were winnable games . . . we just needed to play stronger," Clarkson said.
Stevens didn't bring up the Amherst game to her players after it ended.
"I backed off after the Amherst game," she said. "I gave them the next day off, and didn't talk about it."
The day off turned out to be what the Bengals needed.
Led by Clarkson and Karen Shaddock, the team rebounded from the back-to-back losses with convincing
victories over Virginia Wesleyan and Union by scores of 18-9 and 18-12, respectively, to improve their
record to 6-2 on the season.
"We had a team meeting," Clarkson said. "We set goals for what we wanted to accomplish for the rest
of the trip."
Shaddock made team history against Union as she became the all-time leader in goals for the Bengals,
passing Katie Henderson, who scored 185 goals during her time at Buffalo State.
"When I scored I actually didn't think about it," Shaddock said. "Individual stats are nice, but we are
going for it all this year so it doesn't mean much."
Against Virginia Wesleyan, the Bengals opened the game on a 3-0 run before the Marlins got on the
board.
Backed by Shaddock's four-goal, three-assist first half, Buffalo State took a commanding 12-3 lead into
the break, and didn't let up on the gas when the second half started.
Buffalo State scored three goals in the first five minutes to up their lead to 13-3, and they didn't look
back.
The team closed out their Florida trip with a matchup against Union, which was looking for its first win
on the season.
It started as a game of runs, as the Bengals opened up a 3-0 lead in the first nine minutes of the game
before Union went on a 3-0 run of its own to tie the game.
After the Bengals took a 5-3 lead, the Dutchmen went on another three-goal run to take their first lead
of the game. It didn't last long, however, as Buffalo State scored four goals in the final seven minutes of
the first to take a 9-7 lead into halftime.
The second half began with the teams trading goals for the first 15 minutes. Clarkson then scored three
goals in the final 12 minutes to help the Bengals race out to an 18-11 lead to put the game out of reach.
With the beginning of SUNYAC play just under a week away, the team knew they needed to end the
Florida trip on a positive note.
"It was very important," Clarkson said about winning the final two games. "We need to enter SUNYAC
play strong."
"We need to get focused. Every game counts," said Shaddock, who was named the SUNYAC Women's
Lacrosse Player of the Week after totaling 16 goals and 28 points over the four games for the Bengals.
Buffalo State will play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Coyer Field against Ithaca before conference play begins
on Saturday.
Michael Straw can be reached by e-mail at straw.record@live.com.
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