by Megan Murray
sports editor
This past weekend combined victory and loss for Millsaps lacrosse teams. The men’s lacrosse team lost a tough game at home Friday night against the Southwestern University Pirates. The women’s lacrosse team, however, stormed passed the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels Saturday for the win.
The Majors men’s lacrosse team fought hard Friday under the lights at Harper Davis field, but they came up short in a 14-7 loss. The Majors had two big rallies on the night, coming within one point of a tied score. Early in the fourth quarter, the Majors went on a 3-0 run with goals from Scott Budd, Simon Sherman and Jack Houtz to cut the scoring deficit to 8-7 at the time. Goalie Riley McLean’s 18 recorded saves on the night were not enough to defeat the Pirates’ 6-0 run to end the game and secure the victory. 
Photo courtesy of Millsaps Sports Information
The men’s lacrosse team falls to 0-4 on the season, but senior captain Scott Budd is not discouraged. “As a captain, I think the best strategy is to continue trying to help our guys learn from their mistakes,” Budd says. “I make just as many mistakes as anyone else, but if we are able to limit our mistakes and execute our game plan given to us by our coach then we can play with anyone on our schedule.”
He adds, “We have had a tough first four games, but I believe that it has helped us galvanize our beliefs, and hopefully we can continue to build on that. If we continue to improve our discipline on both sides of the ball, I know we will see a lot more favorable outcomes in the next few games as well as conference.”
Moving into Saturday, women’s lacrosse was looking for a different outcome. Although the Oglethorpe Petrels scored the first goal of the game only 30 seconds in, the Majors responded in a huge way with 10 unanswered goals. The scoring never ceased for the Majors as they recorded 44 shots and 19 goals in the contest. Six different Majors scored in the game, including a team-high seven goals for Katie Iskra. Molly Ambrose added five more. Goalie Whitney Smith tallied 13 saves on the day.
Junior captain Iskra gives credit to her team for the blowout win. She says, “Our game against Oglethorpe was a big team win for us. This was a very high scoring game for us and it was nice to see six of our attackers/midfielders getting goals. You can tell a team works well together when there are more than two or three players scoring all of the goals.”
With Saturday’s victory, the Majors move to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. Iskra contributes the team’s success so far to Coach Macdonald and the team’s work ethic. “Coach Macdonald stepped in and turned our whole lacrosse program around this season… She has put a great deal of emphasis on practicing discipline on the field,” She says. “I think we can attribute our success thus far to the discipline in our work ethic, as well as how we are able communicate positively on the field. We trust each other out there and we always have each other’s backs.”
Photo courtesy of Millsaps Sports Information
With six consecutive away games for the Majors, Iskra says, “The future looks very promising for us and we’re focused on keeping this momentum as the season goes on. We have a lot of work to do as we start to face tougher opponents, but I think we’re starting out with a strong foundation.”
As the seasons continue to gear up, men’s lacrosse looks for their first win against Centenary College at Harper Davis field Wednesday. Majors’ women’s lacrosse hopes to continue their winning streak as they take on Denison and Centre in Danville, Kentucky, next weekend.