Led by its senior class, BYU women’s lacrosse defeated Southern Utah 21-0 Saturday night at the Northern Fields on Senior Night.
The Cougars chanted “Tessa” as the match began in support of senior Tessa Frey, one of six seniors in the starting lineup for BYU head coach Melissa Nash.
Strong goalie play at the beginning of the match from the Thunderbirds was not enough to stop the Cougars, who scored eight goals in the first quarter.
The packed stands erupted with support for BYU senior attacker Maddie Larkins, who scored first for the Cougars and continued to show support as seniors Lizzie Van Valkenburg, Abby Degn, and Whitney Holt all scored goals for BYU in the first quarter.
“It’s awesome to be playing with my teammates, and to have the first goal in the last home game. It’s special,” said Larkins.
Frey also scored two goals along with a couple of assists in the first quarter.
Heading into the second quarter, BYU momentum continued with three more goals before a Thunderbird timeout was called to try and slow down the damage.
But not much could be done to stop the Cougars.
BYU finished the half with smothering defense that completely dismantled the Thunderbirds' offense.
The Cougars’ defense fueled the offense, helping BYU score 13 goals before halftime.
One of those goals came from senior defender Emily Osterloh with three minutes left in the half.
Nash has been working with Osterloh since she was in the seventh grade and was emotional talking about her performance on Senior Night.
“She’s a star defender for us and crushes it,” said Nash. “She’s an even better person than she is on the field and she’s going to do amazing things.”
By halftime, all six seniors for BYU had scored a goal.
During halftime, families and loved ones of the Cougar seniors walked onto the Northern Fields to join a celebration for those competing in their last home game.
Some family members made long trips to be able to show their love and support.
“My family, their flight got canceled, so they drove through the night to get here,” said Van Valkenburg.
Other players also noted the importance of having their family support them on such a special night.
“It means everything to me,” said Osterloh. “I love my family and it’s one of my favorite things about playing games.”
Not only were the Cougars honored, but SUU senior Rylan Pickett was also honored and given flowers by the BYU coaching staff.
In regards to the organization of the senior night festivities, coach Nash gave credit to the parents for being there for the team.
“Our parents want to celebrate like their kids and we just have so much support from these parents showing up,” said Nash. “Coming to tournaments out of state, they always are here to support them.”
The end of the senior appreciation activities marked the beginning of the second half.
The seniors continued to celebrate after a beautiful pass from one captain, Holt, to another captain, Degn, resulted in a goal for BYU.
Seconds later, Degn spread some of the wealth and found Larkins for another goal.
The Thunderbirds responded with some offense of its own and had a great chance at a goal off of a free position shot caused by a BYU penalty, but Cougars’ freshman goalie Marcella Woolley denied any chance of scoring.
Woolley and junior goalie Anna Kreipl prevented SUU from scoring the entire game.
BYU then continued to dominate on the attack in the second half and finished with 21 goals total in the game.
BYU midfielder Kate Johnson and Holt both completed hat tricks and freshman attacker Anne Howard also scored, much to the delight of the home crowd.
Other goal scorers included freshman Olivia Cannon, freshman Taya Chalk, sophomore Melina Gunnell and sophomore Hannah Nelson.
With four minutes left to go in the game, Nash called a timeout to bring in all of the seniors from the team.
When the whistle blew and play resumed, the bench for BYU cheered on the seniors vocally as they chanted how much they love them.
“They’re waking up at six in the morning so we just want to honor them and celebrate their lacrosse career,” said Nash. “We send them off into the world, loving them and supporting them, and hoping that the lessons that they’ve learned in lacrosse will carry them on.”
The impressive win still doesn’t mean that the Cougars are complacent.
BYU has high goals to finish the season and are set on reaching them.
“We have lots of team goals about where we want to rank, like keeping top-20, and then placing top eight for nationals,” said Van Valkenburg.
Others have goals to improve a specific part of the team's strategy.
“We’ve been trying to work on our efficiency on attack and being able to score more at will,” said Larkins.
The Cougars will travel to play Utah Valley University March 21 and hope to maintain the momentum into postseason play.
BYU is currently ranked sixth in the WCLA Division I Top 20 rankings.