Youth, Fatigue Hinder Lacrosse

12-11, 18-5, 16-7, 14-6... With weighted-down scores like these piling up on the Columbia women's lacrosse team's record, it might seem as if things are getting out of hand up at Wien Stadium. But tallies like these are not all that disheartening in the world of women's lacrosse, considering that the team plays in the Ivy League, where the majority of the teams competing are among the top 20 programs in the country.

The Lions, though proving that they can compete this season with a 12-11 victory over Fairfield last night, are not near the level of play of the other Ivies, and with a string of injuries early on this season, the young team has had to stretch itself thin just to even try keeping pace with its peers.

For any team, the constant traversing back and forth across the field that comes with high-scoring games presents a challenge to everyone in uniform. For the Lions, these long sprints can become particularly debilitating because of Columbia's short staff of reserve players on the bench. While most of their competitors have used up to 16 substitutions over the course of one game, the Lions average only two or three, leaving most of their starters on the turf for the full 60 minutes. Even at the peak of conditioning, that's a lot.

Columbia head coach Kerri Whitaker has never been a fan of excessive subbing. Instead, she prefers to allow her players more time out on the field together to connect and establish a flow in their game, but even she admits that it is difficult to manage with such a shortened bench.

"We have a rough thing," Whitaker said, "...especially in the midfield where it's an area that you can do a lot of work running to maintain control."

Several season-ending injuries early on in the season leveled the Lions' expectations from the beginning, and the team has worked hard since to stay in good physical condition to reduce the risk of future injury. Yet the loss of sophomores Ashley Mehl and Lindsey Johnson, as well as freshman Ellie Schneiders and the continued aggravation of her classmate Lauren Olsen's injury leaves more for the rest of the team to compensate for.

On the field, slight actions such as taking charge and letting a particularly spent teammate take a bit of a break by staying behind on an attack can help ease the situation, but in such a high-intensity sport, the actual players can do little else to combat physical fatigue.

With only two seniors and three juniors on the Lions' roster, the younger players with much less collegiate experience have had to step up quickly this season. For many, this requires a harsh adjustment to the accelerated pace of action in the Ivy League, especially when they are required to take on bigger roles on their own team than would usually be expected from a first- or second-year player. Though the younger Lions players have worked hard to adjust to their situation, they can only do so much.

After getting off to a strong start with their record-setting 19-6 victory over Lafayette early last month, the Lions have continued their trend of high-scoring totals all season long, both for and against their favor. While at times they have come close to edging out their competitors in these action-packed outings, squeezing out a 5-5 record thus far, a season's worth of 17-plus goal games can really take a toll on the players who continue to traipse the field week after week. In their first ten games of the season, the Lions have either scored or allowed (or both) ten or more goals in each outing.

A main factor in these large and sometimes lopsided point totals is Columbia's ability (or lack thereof) to maintain ball control and possession. (Granted, this gets a lot harder when you've sprinted the equivalent of several miles in the last couple of minutes.) While coach Whitaker lauds her team on their attitude in response to an unfortunate situation, she sees better ball handling as the key to limiting much of the energy spent out on the field.

Last night's game against the Stags is a prime example of how Columbia is fighting to keep pace with their competition, and in the end pulled through with the three unreturned scores in the final ten minutes of play.

"We did just a little bit with possessions, and controlled the ball a little bit more," Whitaker said after last night's win. "Towards the end they started to try to work the clock a little bit, and we were pretty patient there and smart with our pressure... That gave us an opportunity to close the gap."

Whether or not a more patient and controlled game is the answer to the Lions' difficulties is hard to tell at this point, and even though Columbia faces a relatively easier schedule heading down the final six-game stretch of their season, the more physically strained a team feels, the harder it is to focus on seemingly simple goals like ball movement and mental focus.

Lauren Clark is a Barnard College senior majoring in urban studies. Send any comments to sports@columbiaspectator.com.