MORGANTOWN — As University girls’ lacrosse coach Kevin Armstrong gathered his team at midfield following the opening round of the WVSLA Playoffs on Wednesday, the mood was tense.
The Hawks accomplished their goal — an 11-3 win against St. Albans to advance to the semifinals — but Armstrong found himself frustrated with his team’s performance.
“This is probably one of the best group of girls I’ve ever been around,” he said. “I care about them, and I want to see them perform at the top of their game. I hold them to a high expectation, high standards, and when I don’t see them performing that way I let them know.
“We got away with one tonight. We really did. We need to practice better and we need to be ready for our next game or it’s going to be a long ride home.”
The Hawks struggled to find their rhythm on the offensive end of the field, lacking cohesion and organization as a group for much of the game. The result, numerous errant plays and turnovers, did not sit well with Armstrong.
“We had a lot of unforced turnovers. Now I can live with some turnovers, if we’re being pressured and the defense makes a great play, that’s part of the game,” he said. “But when we’re throwing the ball over other girls’ heads or we have a pass right to our stick and we drop it — it’s the little things that make the difference on this team, and these girls are so much better than they played tonight.”
University senior Logan White, who tallied one goal in the win, pointed to selfish play as a factor in the team’s less-than-satisfactory performance.
“Personally, I think it’s more of just working together as a team,” she said. “Tonight, we were playing for ourselves and not trying our best. We weren’t doing what our coach asked, we were just going along with it. If we try harder and play as a team, we’ll play a lot better.”
Alex Lang added four goals to pace the Hawks, while Ava Foreman led the team with three assists. Mallory Napolillo notched two goals and two assists each. Sophie Armstrong and Morgan Crocco also add one goal each, with Armstrong also tallying an assist.
The Hawks will face the winner of Thursday’s George Washington/Spring Mills opening round matchup in the semifinals. The Hawks faced both teams twice in the regular season — they earned a pair of victories against Spring Mills, while splitting a pair of overtime games with G.W. UHS would travel to face G.W. but would host Spring Mills.
“It’s going to be a tough game. We need to concentrate and work as a team, but if we don’t overthink and rush anything, we’ll have a good chance of winning,” White said.
“We felt like we could be here, we felt like we had the team, and we’re right where we’re supposed to be. If our girls can play inspired, loose and fundamentally sound, we’ll be fine,” Armstrong added.
