Kingston University women’s lacrosse team won on walkover against St Marys’s despite a 12-8 defeat on Wednesday February 21 at Teddington Lock sports campus.
In sports anything can happen and winning a match on walkover because the judge fails to show up is one of them. The judge cancelled at the last minute and the two teams decided to play a friendly match instead.
Kingston got off to the best start when Synne Johnsson scored her first goal of the day only 40 seconds into the first quarter. After a long run around the goal she fought her way into the defence and put the ball in the top right corner.
However, the Kingston lead did not last for long before St Mary’s Yaz Ryder made an impressive run through the Kingston defence and put the ball in the left corner.
In the minutes that followed St Mary’s scored two more goals by Ryder and Hannah Harden, putting them in a 3-1 lead.
But Kingston returned straight after in the seventh minute of the first quarter, with Kelly Conklin scoring Kingston’s second goal of the match.
Right before the end of the first quarter, Harden hit again and made sure St Mary’s had a comfortable 4-2 lead before the second quarter.
Kingston’s captain, Sasha Boyko, started the first quarter on the sideline with an injured foot, but she fell for the temptation to play anyway and put on her game face for the second quarter.
Boyko said: “I was supposed to sit out but I couldn’t watch the game, I had to play. It is really nice to watch, but it’s so much better to play.”
The second quarter started with high tempo from both teams and after only four minutes three goals were scored and St Mary’s were now in a 6-3 lead. Right before halftime Boyko showed why she is the team captain and scored her first goal of the day.
Boyko started the third quarter like she finished of the second, a long run through the St Mary’s defence and shot the ball confidently past the goalie, 6-5 to St Mary’s.
But St Mary’s got Harden and in the fifth minute of the third quarter she hit again. A few minutes later Laura Gascoyne put St Mary’s in an 8-5 lead after an impressive fight against the Kingston defence.
Despite an injured foot, Boyko seemed to be on top of her game, scoring her third goal after a solo run down the right hand side and making the score 8-6 after 45 minutes played.
In the third minute of the fourth quarter St Mary’s Ryder made it look easy, running down the left hand side past the defence and put it easily past the goalie. But Kingston’s captain was not done for the day, scoring her fourth goal straight after.
It was a tight game with high pressure from both of the teams, but the strong trio from St Mary’s became too hard to deal with for the Kingston defence. The game ended in a 12-8 win to St Mary’s.
Despite the loss Kingston’s captain was pleased with the game. “I think it went really well, it was really fun to play. It was an interesting game, good to see that the girls are getting better,” she said.
The match was also a bit special for one of the Kingston players. Grace Bonnewell celebrated her birthday and could not have been happier with the team’s effort.
She said: “Today’s match was so much fun. I absolutely love the Kingston team, we are like one big family.”
However, after the match Kingston learned that they were rewarded with a win because it was St Mary’s responsibility to fix a judge.
Konstantinos Patas