By Jason A. Vrtis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The UA women's club lacrosse team used balanced scoring and strong defense to sweep away UCLA and UC-Irvine last Saturday to earn a berth in the Western Women's Lacrosse League Final Four.
The Wildcats qualified for their first-ever Final Four with a 16-11 win over the Bruins and a solid 15-8 victory over the Lady Anteaters at Wildcat Field.
"Our players had trouble starting off in both games, but they picked it up in the second half," Coach Nicole Plotkin said.
In the first game against UCLA, the Wildcats had a narrow 11-10 lead when they scored five straight goals, putting the game out of reach.
Arizona was led by a trio of Wildcats: senior Terry Repp, senior captain Christiana Dello Russo and freshman Jessica Deal, who all scored hat tricks in the UCLA game. Three other players chipped in with two goals each to round out the balanced attack.
In the title game against UCI, with the berth in the WWLL's Final Four on the line, both teams came out sluggish as a result of the Arizona heat, Plotkin said.
But the Wildcats were once again led by their No. 1 offensive threat, Terry Repp, who had another hat trick to lead them to the win. Five other Wildcats scored two goals apiece to complete the scoring.
"They played with a lot more confidence and were much more composed this time against Irvine," Plotkin said. "Two weekends ago, the Irvine players got under our skin a little so we had more to prove this time around."
Arizona travels to UC-Davis Saturday to play Stanford, the No. 1 seed in the northern division.
"Our players seem to play well against an experienced, aggressive style like Stanford's," Plotkin said.
The Cardinal finished their first season ever in the WWLL with an 18-5 overall record and a 9-0 league record.
The Stanford-Arizona winner will go on to play the UC-Santa Barbara-UC-Davis winner in the championship match Sunday.