Wheeling, W. Va. – As they entered the final week of regular season Mountain East Conference (MEC) play, the Wheeling University Women's Lacrosse team (6-6, 4-3) wrapped up the home portion of their regular season schedule. Wheeling welcomed The University of Charleston to Bishop Schmitt Field, and fell by the final score of 18-7. Five different Cardinals scored at least one goal in the effort as Wheeling continues to prepare for a run in the MEC Championships next week.
The Golden Eagles did not waste any time getting on the board, scoring within the first two and a half minutes of play. They added another goal at the 9:32 mark of the first quarter and the Cardinals would find themselves down 2-0 early. As the quarter went on, it was a Charleston Yellow card that flipped the switch for the offense as the Cardinals rattled off four shots in a row. It was the fourth of those shots that would find the back of the net as Klara Domachowska picked up a wide shot. She would dump it off to Sophia Cirone who got the Cardinals on the board and made it a 2-1 game. After Charleston won the ensuing draw control, the Cardinals would get the ball back and Trinity Rose put her name in the scorebook with an unassisted goal to tie things at 2-2.
Charleston would add one more tally before the quarter was out, and the Cardinals trailed 3-2 heading to the second. The back and forth continued into the second quarter as Charleston got on the board at the 12:15 mark of the quarter. Wheeling would win the ensuing draw control and, after a shot was saved, Rose was back at it on defense with a caused turnover. Paige Jankowski would get set up with a free position, and took advantage putting it into the back of the net to get it back to a one-goal game at 4-3. Wheeling's final goal of the half would come off a draw control from Sophia Cirone, who sent the ball to Domachowska. Domachowska would put the ball in the back of the net and the Cardinals made it a 6-4 game with 5:17 to go in the half.
However, two more Golden Eagles goals before the half pushed the lead to four, and the Cardinals trailed 8-4 heading into the second half. They would add the first three goals of the third quarter as the Cardinal deficit increased to 11-4 by the 11:34 mark of the third quarter. The Cardinals needed a stopper and they turned to Jovie Noack after a Charleston Yellow Card. Noack would set up a free position opportunity, and put the ball into the back of the net to make it an 11-5 game. It was the first of two straight free position goals for the Cardinals as they set up another opportunity with 8:19 to go in the quarter. This time, it was Trinity Rose and she would put her second goal of the day into the back of the net. Charleston added two more goals before the quarter was out and the Wheeling deficit sat at 13-6 heading into the final 15 minutes of play.
The Golden Eagles would put five more goals into the back of the net over the next 13 minutes and the running clock was implemented. Charleston had built an 18-6 lead with 2:38 to play. The Cardinals would look to make one more push and they would do just that on the draw control following the 18th goal. Rose would get the win and avoided a caused turnover by picking up her own ground ball. She would feed the ball to Noack, who set up the Cardinal offense. She ended up taking the ball to the net herself and hit the back of the net for the second time on the day. It made it an 18-7 game, and the Cardinals would get one more shot off with 10 seconds to go. It was Domachowska who took the shot, but a save would bring the game to its final score of 18-7.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was the combination of Trinity Rose and Jovie Noack, who each scored two goals on the day. Noack was the team's leading shot taker, taking six shots and putting three of those on net, while Rose was the most efficient with three shots, two of those on goal. Three other Cardinals would tally goals on the day, with Sophia Cirone, Klara Domachowska, and Paige Jankowski all adding goals on the day. Domachowska would be the leading scorer, adding yep assists and a goal that finish with three points on the day. Sophia Cirone would finish with two points, picking up the other assist on the day for the Cardinals. With the loss, the Cardinals will be forced to start their MEC Championship run with a play-in game and will look to claim home field advantage in their final game of the season.
The Wheeling University Women's Lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday, April 19th, when they hit the road to face Frostburg State at 1 PM.
