Last season, the Alabama women’s lacrosse club team lost its first game of the season but went on to win its remaining games and earned its first spot in the Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League Championships. The team finished the season ranked fourth in its conference.

Last week, Alabama lost to Georgia in its season opener. Junior midfielder Sarah Sanderson said this early season loss isn’t discouraging to the team.

“No one is discouraged by that loss at all. In fact, we are more pumped up by it just because we are playing them again,” Sanderson said.

In the past two weeks, the team has not been able to practice much due to weather conditions and the recreation fields being closed. The team works around these problems and watches film to prepare for games.

In the first home game of the season, Alabama hosted Georgia Tech at the University Recreation fields. Bouncing back from their loss, Alabama dominated Georgia Tech with a score of 16-7. Alabama controlled the pace of the game, with its first goal coming in the first two minutes of play by Jacquie Andreano.

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Head coach Jason Sanderson said he loved the way his team played this weekend.

“They’re a pretty interesting team. They’ll spark up real quick. It’s like oil and fire, really. As soon as you ignite it, they’re gone,” he said.

Alabama continued its quick pace, scoring nine goals in the first half and seven in the second. Emily Jaworski and Kelsea Serlin each had hat tricks on the day. In just her second game of her college career, Jaworski showed talent and effort on offense for Alabama.

“It was fun,” freshman midfielder Jaworski said. “Hard work pays off, so I got to keep working.”

But Alabama struggled with penalty calls throughout the game.

Penalty calls are dangerous in lacrosse games because they create a turnover or a free shot on goal, depending where on the field the penalty occurs. Four yellow cards were issued to Alabama players, and once a fourth card is issued, that team plays a man down for the remainder of the game. This happened to Alabama with about 10 minutes left in the half. Georgia Tech was able to take advantage of Alabama’s penalties, scoring twice.

Sanderson said he wasn’t worried about the penalties because of his goalie between the pipes. Goalie Ashley Dennis saved 19 of 23 shots on goal.

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“[Dennis] was atrocious out there. I loved it. It was just domination left and right,” Sanderson said. “It was just nothing going in. In fact, every foul that was called, I didn’t care because I knew she was going to save it. So she’s just a quality goalie.”

Club president Caley Curtis said the team is excited and ready to keep building on their success.

“We’re just looking to continue our success from this game and keep playing as a team and playing how we’re supposed to play,” Curtis said. “Maybe clean it up a little bit more and maybe not get as many yellow cards.”

Next Saturday, Alabama will take on Southern Mississippi and Emory University at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, at the University Recreation fields.

(See also “Lacrosse club shoots to win against KSU“)