Lax Girls Dominate Southampton

Cambridge 24 – 0 Southampton

The Lax Blues stormed to an emphatic victory on Wednesday against a sorry Southampton side.

Co-Captain Laura Plant acts like a terrier to win the ball back, much to the delight on the onlooking Tall Gen Gotla.

Fresh off the back of two victories against Bath and Bristol, the Blues dominated the match from start to finish, commanding possession in all areas of the pitch.

The first half got off to a frantic start as, right from the off, Cambridge asserted their superiority with a series of quick goals.

A well executed quick-stick goal by Georgie Pritchard and Isy Foster, two new talents in the team, set the tone for the home side, who found themselves an astonishing 6-0 up after just 13 minutes.

Southampton wished they had never got off the coach, wearily trudging back to their starting positions after it became clear that this was going to be a whitewash.

As if conceding six goals by this point wasn’t bad enough, the Southampton goalkeeper then suffered a sharp blow to the head from a powerful close-range shot.

Alana Livesey added the seventh goal with a low shot on the turn, and the eighth quickly followed when Georgia Hunt fired high into the goal despite temporarily losing her footing.

Five more goals were added before half time, with a mixture of solo drives from regular Lax stars like Georgie ‘Hurt-locker’ Hurt combined with some sharp counter-attacking play, adding to the woes of a dispirited Southampton side.

Co-Captain Anna Harrison’s half-time team talk called for more team play and movement of the ball, as well as a rather ominous warning to “beware of left-handed players”. Renaissance suspicion of the left still exists in Lacrosse, apparently.

The musings from the Southampton camp were about marking-up, something that indeed had completely eluded them in the first half.

The call for more integrated team-play was realised with the first goal of the second half, Georgie Pritchard finishing off a superb passing move to score Cambridge’s fourteenth and most stylish goal of the match.

Indeed the second half played out much the same way as the first, although Southampton did have slightly more possession to their credit.

They were constantly harrassed, however, whenever they found themselves in possession. The determination of the Blues to recover the ball , which at one point saw a lonely opposition player surrounded by four screaming Cambridge players, was a credit to the professionalism of a team who want to do the basics right regardless of the quality of the opposition.

With events on the pitch taking care of themselves, the discussions on the sidelines quickly turned to more important matters: that of the upcoming Mahal Swap with the Blues football team.

An enlightening exchange between Lacrosse Social Sec Fran Owen and Gen Gotla about how to dress as a footballer’s wife without offending friends who dress like that normally was a special highlight.

Gotla’s sideline chat also produced the best quote of the day, when she told Co-Captain Laura Plant, “I want your babies- it is a fact”. Evidently the Lax girls take the notion of playing as ‘one family’ fairly literally.

Back on the pitch goals were being scored with alarming ease; indeed, sometimes goals were being scored with a run straight from the restart. The girls looked confident in settle play, passing it wide and taking it behind goal, allowing Tab Fashion star Check Warner the chance to show off her angles with a superb shot from close-range.

The only downer for the Cambridge side was a late injury to star-player Alana Livesey, although she is renowned for being a gritty northerner, so she’ll probably bounce back in time for next week’s match.

By the full time whistle blew, the score was 24-0, a fair reflection of the total one-sidedness of the match.

Although the Blues will face sterner tests in weeks to come, with this superb start to the season there seems to be no obvious reason why Harrison and Plant can’t lead the team to league success.

The Kingfisher’s lost out to Nottingham 1sts 9-7, despite strong performances from Amelia Duncanson on the wing, and good work from Katie Salter at left defence.

The Blues next game is away on Wednesday against Bath. The Kingfisher’s face Nottingham again, this time they travel to the to the UK’s crime capital to face their second string.