Women's LAX Takes Down Denison in Overtime

Kourtney Sexauer '08 scored four goals to lead Whittier College to an 18-16 overtime victory over Denison University in Memorial Stadium on March 11.  The Poets fought back from an early six-goal deficit to improve their record to 2-1 on the season.

The Poets started the scoring with a goal from Emily Mukai '10 in the first five minutes of action.  Denison responded in a big way, scoring four goals in a span of one minute, eleven seconds to take a 4-1 lead.  The Big Red continued to pour it on, adding goals in the 12^th, 14^th and 15^th minutes. 

Halfway through the first half, when even with forty minutes left to play, it appeared that Denison had the game in hand, the Poet offense sprang to life.  Sexauer and Sherise Varga '10 netted back-to-back goals to cut the lead to four with ten minutes left in the half.  The Big Red answered with their eighth goal in the 23^rd minute, but Mukai answered with a goal less than a minute later to make the score 8-4.  The goal was the first of four unanswered goals from the Poets that brought the half to a close with the score 8-7.

Denison started the second half much like they started the first, posting three goals in the first eight minutes of the half to extend their lead to 11-7.  Once again, the Poets fought back, as Cassidy Lake '08 and Ana Garcia '10 scored free position goals within 30 seconds of each other to cut the lead in half.  Lake scored again in the 40^th minute and Sexauer netted her third to tie the score at eleven with twenty minutes to play. 

For the rest of the half, the teams traded goals with the Big Red taking a 15-14 lead with less than four minutes left in regulation.  With just 1:19 left, Varga received a pass from Katie Clinnin '11, split a pair of defenders and beat the goalkeeper to tie the score and send the game into overtime.

Denison scored first in the overtime period, but it was all they would get.  Trill Santin '11 scored to tie the game at 16 with three minutes left in the game.  Blakely Rice '10 scored what would prove to be the game-winner on a free position shot in the 65^th minute and then scored her third goal of the game a minute later to seal the 18-16 victory.

Sexauer finished with a team-high five points for the Poets.  Varga and Rice each had three goals and an assist.  Mukai scored two goals and assisted on another and Lake pitched in with a pair of goals.  Clinnin had a goal and an assist and Shari Brokowski '08 and Santin each scored once.  Jessica Farrell '10 came into the game midway through the first half and made ten saves in goal.  Six of those saves came in the second half to keep the Poets in striking distance. 

Whittier dominated the groundball battle, winning 20-11.  The teams were even in draw controls and turnovers.  Clinnin finished with four draw controls and four groundballs to allow the Poets to maintain possession.  Sexauer also had four draw controls. 

The Poets look to continue their winning ways on March 17, when they host the College of Wooster at Memorial Stadium.  The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00pm.