Women’s lacrosse wraps up perfect season, finishes 17-0

The No. 5 women’s lacrosse team finished its 2016 regular season on a high note, defeating UC Davis 14-4 during Sunday’s Senior Day. With a 17-0 record, the Trojans are continuing to make program history, and their journey does not end here. Instrumental in the team’s success have been the seniors who have served as role models, building the team from the ground up.

“It feels great,” head coach Lindsey Munday said. “We’ve really just been trying to go one game at a time and not be thinking about the season as a whole. But today in general was so special to cap off this regular season with the seniors and to go out this way, it’s just really coming full circle.”

The Trojan roster features 14 seniors and today, each and every one of them contributed to the team dynamic and chemistry, which propelled USC to its 17th victory of a historic season.

For senior defender Courtney Tarleton, today marked her first shot of her four year career, which resulted in her first goal.

“Everyone always pressures me to take a shot and I’ve never taken a shot before until this game so it feels really good to have a goal finally,” Tarleton said.

Tarleton has been a crucial component of the Trojan defense and led the team by example.

“She’s been an incredible leader and an incredible person. It’s really special for her to be able to end with a goal,” Munday said.

The Trojans’ success this season can be attributed to the depth that the team has on both ends of the field and the joint effort that goes into each and every play.

“The reason why we’ve been so successful this year is that it’s everybody and that’s what’s so special,” Munday said. “To cap it off this way for this group is just really special, I’m just so proud of them.”

The win finished off a strong weekend for the Women of Troy.

On Friday, the Trojans survived a late comeback attempt by No. 9 Stanford for a 10-9 victory in a game played at the Coliseum.

Holding a 10-3 lead in the second half, the Women of Troy allowed 6 straight goals, watching their lead get trimmed to just 1 with three minutes to play. But the Trojans swarmed the Cardinal on defense, forcing a turnover and hanging on to the ball in the final minute to close out the win.

Munday credited the stellar defense down the stretch to preparation in practice.

“This whole preseason, we did a really good job battling and really pushing one another in practice,” Munday said. “We’re battling, we’re competing. It’s just a mentality piece in that last minute to stay confident, stay true to what we’re doing and take care of the ball in the end.”

Junior attacker Michaela Michael finished with 4 goals and two assists to lead the way, the 24th time in her career that she’s finished with 3 or more goals. Her last goal capped off a 4-0 run to end the first half for the Trojans, extending a 1-goal lead to 5 at halftime.

Turnovers, though, let the Cardinal back in the game.

“It allowed [the Cardinal] to get a lot of looks offensively. We just need to take care of the ball a little bit more,” Munday said.

Stanford outshot USC 11-5 in the second half, but the Women of Troy ultimately hung on to stay undefeated.

“It’s just awesome to play in the Coliseum,” Munday said. “It’s such a special place. There’s so much tradition here. We started our program in the Coliseum — our very first game was here — so to send the seniors out this week in the Coliseum in the win was pretty special.”

The Trojans will prepare for the MPSF Tournament, which begins Friday in Stanford.

Josh Cohen contributed to this report.