Ohio State then-junior attack Molly Wood races up field against Penn State on April 12, 2016 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Credit: Courtesy of OSU Athletics
The Ohio State Women’s lacrosse team (6-7, 0-2) continued their scoring slump over the weekend, dropping back-to-back games against Big Ten foe Rutgers and No. 9 University of Southern California.
Scarlet Knights top the Scarlet and Gray 15-5
On Friday night, OSU looked to capture its first Big Ten win of the season against the team that ended its year just a season ago in the Big Ten tournament. Rutgers, who is now 6-4 on the season, had other plans for the Buckeyes.
The Scarlet and Gray came out and scored first when sophomore midfielder Baley Parrott netted her 21st goal of the year. That would be the last goal of the half until the five-minute mark for the Buckeyes as the Scarlet Knights began to dominate the ball, scoring five times during the process.
With Rutgers having the 5-1 lead, OSU inched its way back into the game before the halftime whistle blew. Junior attack Molly Wood, who has scored in every game for her team, found the goal for her 31st of the year, before sophomore midfielder Erika Kesselman added one more.
The second half, however, would feature a hat trick from Rutgers’ Kristina Dunphey, which was part of a 10-2 goal differential in favor of the Scarlet Knights in the second half. Wood and Kesselman would both add one more during the period but that would be the only output of offense the Buckeyes had throughout the second half of play.
This win gave Rutgers their third consecutive win over OSU, with two close wins coming just last season. For the Buckeyes, this game dropped them to 0-2 in the Big Ten and they are now just 2-4 when playing as the road team.
No. 9 Southern Cal too much, Buckeyes’ skid continues
OSU stayed in New Jersey after their game against Rutgers on Friday to take on Southern Cal, who played Stony Brook in a Friday night matchup as well. The Trojans lost that contest and came out looking to rebound, just like the Buckeyes.
Parrott again was able to break open the scoring for her team when she bested the goalie for her 22nd time of the year. Kesselman would stretch the early Buckeye lead to two when she scored off of the helper from senior midfielder Morgan Fee.
Southern Cal and Michaela Michael would quickly turn that around with two unassisted goals from Michael along with two others from Kylie Drexel and Kerrigan Miller. OSU senior midfielder and captain, Paulina Constant, scored her eighth of the year to pull them to within one with 8:54 remaining in the half but that wouldn’t last long.
The Trojans went on a five-goal run that bled into the second half stretching the score out to 9-3. From there, Wood and Southern Cal began to trade goals until Wood had another hat trick for the year and the Trojans had secured the win 16-7.
Michael of Southern Cal ended the day with a whopping six goals on her nine shots in what was the first contest between the two schools. Freshman attacker for the Buckeyes, Liza Hernandez, missed her fourth consecutive game but is still thought to be day-to-day.
Next Up
OSU will come back to Columbus for this week’s practices before heading out to State College, Pennsylvania to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions at 1 p.m. on Friday.
