8 August 2015, Nymburk, Czech Republic – The Irish Women’s National team came up 10 seconds short today, falling to Scotland 8-7. The Green Machine sits at 1-1 in 2015 European Championship pool play, and will face Belgium on Sunday.
The Irish got off to a very strong start, and netted the first two goals of the match (the first goal of the game was the first goal Scotland had conceded all tournament). The Scots then responded with 5 straight. However, the green and white were able to stem the tide, and take the momentum; they scored two more to end the half at 5-4. The second half was an absolute battle. Scotland was able to find the cage with under 2 minutes to play in the game, pulling ahead 8-7. After a furious defensive stand, the Irish caused a turnover and transitioned the ball, and simply ran out of time, unable to get a shot off before the final horn.
This was the first time that Ireland and Scotland have met on the field for a women’s international match. Statistically, the Irish had a good day on the field. Caroline Peters had 2 goals 1 assist, Tori Devine and Nonie Andersen had 2 goals apiece, Rachel Ward added 1 goal, and Claire Halliday had 2 assists. Breada Farrell and Devin O’Leary each had 3 caused turnovers. Schyler Neale and Pamela Smithwick contributed another 2 caused turnovers on the defensive end. Ashley DeFlumere “stood on her head” and had 12 saves in the game, many from in tight.
Head Coach Sarah Walsh said, “I am very happy with how we fought. We made adjustments from the game versus Austria that needed to happen: starting faster and harder, picking up the pace of play. We focused on playing the highest level of Ireland Lacrosse that we can, rather than countering the other team’s game plan. We play our best when we play for each other, and we were successful with that today.”
In the final match of pool play, Ireland will face Belgium on Sunday 9 August, at 10:30 Nymburk local time. The live stream of the game will be presented on ec15lax.com. The game will also be live-tweeted to @IrelandWLax.
AMC Consulting Player of the Game: Ashley DeFlumere
Leave a Comment