Women's lacrosse drops 2 key games on the road

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior attacker Sarah Schier(15) runs past a UCSB player during a game earlier this year. The UA women's lacrosse team lost twice this weekend, likely killing its playoff chances.

The Wildcats have appeared in the Western Women's Lacrosse League's Final Four for the past four years, and while they never finished higher than third, it was a remarkable run every year against the Division I teams from the WWLL's Northern Division.

But the run is all but over after this year's Wildcats (3-6) lost over the weekend at UCLA 11-10 in overtime and at Claremont 10-6.

"We're done," head coach Josh Dreiband said, though no one knows for certain if UA is eliminated just yet. "There's not much to say."

The Wildcats opened the year with four straight losses, two on the road, and then bounced back with three consecutive wins at home.

But a month-long break from action prior to the Western States Tournament at UC-Davis last weekend, an exhibition event, left the Wildcats lacking in the simple fundamental aspects of lacrosse, Dreiband said.

"The teams there knew each other better than we do," he said. "We didn't practice enough this year. When people don't show up to practice they can't expect to come together on game day and play like a team."

Team captain and senior defender Maren Henley has not lost hope, though.

"We still have one game to go," she said, referring to Saturday's upcoming match at UC-San Diego. "I don't know for sure if we're out of the playoffs yet. Hopefully we can win this weekend. They were the only team below us."

Going into the weekend UCSD was 0-5, but the scores from its games against UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara were not available.

"I'd assume they'll be just as disenchanted as us," Henley said.

Dreiband said Henley and junior attacker Erin Bradbury were the top two players for UA yet again.

"Erin scored like three to four goals per game and Maren played great all weekend," he said.

Henley said the Wildcats didn't keep official stats for the weekend.

"This weekend was kind of what I expected," Dreiband said of the losses.

Henley said that if Arizona wants to avoid a repeat of this season, the players need to work on their fundamentals over the summer, working out individually like she did two years ago.

"It looks like after this weekend I'm done," she said. "We've had a lot of good high points. I just tried to improve every year. I don't know if it'll be the last time I ever get to play lacrosse. I hope not."

Chris Jackson can be reached at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu.