Ohio State freshman midfielder Liza Hernandez looks to pass in the offensive zone against Stanford on Feb. 24 at Ohio Stadium. Credit: James King | Lantern reporter
This Saturday will be the final time that eight players of the Ohio State women’s lacrosse team will suit up in the Scarlet and Gray. The team will be honoring their seniors in their last game of the season against Johns Hopkins.
While this season has not necessarily gone the way they had hoped, the Buckeyes want to end the season on a positive note.
“We’ve been talking about what (the seniors) want to be remembered as,” OSU head coach Alexis Venechanos said. “As a group they are, really hardworking, really caring.”
The Buckeyes have three senior captains this year in midfielders Paulina Constant and Tess Solazzo along with defender Meredith Bushell. Constant and Bushell have started in every game this season for OSU and Solazzo earned her captaincy halfway through the season.
Other seniors like midfielders Christina Turner and Morgan Fee have also seen extended playing time throughout the season. Turner collected 26 ground balls on the season, which put her behind only Bushell and freshman goalie Jill Rizzo for the team’s best.
“It’s going to be a little bit bittersweet,” Fee said. “My last game in (Ohio Stadium), my last game with all of these amazing teammates. I’ve made lifelong friendships that I can take with me the whole rest of my life.”
The Buckeyes will be wanting a duplicate of their game last season against Johns Hopkins. In that game they downed the Blue Jays 8-7 with six of the eight graduating seniors from this year seeing action.
The key to their success is quite simple according to Venechanos: playing ‘Buckeye Lacrosse.’
“We’re trying not get hoopla, the last everything,” Venechanos said. “We’re just trying to say, ‘let’s play Buckeye Lacrosse.’ In a weird way we have an opportunity to win our last, hopefully compete, and end on a positive note. Not the way we wanted to for sure, but have some good positive momentum to end the season.”
Johns Hopkins will be looking to rebound for their final stretch of games as they are coming off of a 10-goal loss to Stony Brook University. Their two leading goal scorers, junior midfielder Shannon Fitzgerald and senior midfielder Haley Schweizer, were held to just three goals combined in that loss, so the Buckeyes will need to try and contain them similarly to Stony Brook.
The game is set for a 10:45 a.m. start time as they will be the first half of a double-header with the men’s lacrosse team at Ohio Stadium.
