D-S Girls Lax Falls To Medfield To End Regular Season

The Dover-Sherborn girls lacrosse team may have lost their regular season finale against TVL rival Medfield on Tuesday but Raiders coach Erin Newton took away several positives from the 15-12 defeat.

“We [played really well Tuesday] because our last game against Medfield was 16-7 [loss] and in [that] game we only had four people scoring but one person carrying the whole offense, but this time we had five offensive scorers with multiple goals so it made a huge difference,” she said. “When you can have multiple offensive scorers that helps and it showed.”

Kristen Bertschman led the Raiders with four goals and Nora Klemmer netted three. Emily Connors and Ashley Stewart each added two apiece and Andrea Marx scored one.

D-S jumped out to a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the game on a goal from Klemmer. Medfield’s senior Kate Wasley (five goals) netted two goals in a span of 1:39 to give the Warriors (16-2, 10-2) a 2-1 advantage and a lead they would not surrender the rest of the game.

Despite bursts of scoring from Medfield, D-S was able to stay within striking distance and trailed by only one at the half as the Raiders beat Medfield keeper Sarah Honan as time expired in the first half to trail 8-7 heading into the break.

Medfield opened the second half with four straight goals to increase its lead to 12-7 but Dover-Sherborn outscored the Warriors 5-3 the rest of the way before falling by three.

“I think we had a five-goal lead three or four times in this game but we never seemed to be able to put the nail in the coffin and I don’t know why we can’t seem to do that,” said Medfield head coach Jason Heim. “We go on streaks of winning draws and then we lose a bunch and drop them back in and catch back up. It never felt like this game was away, even up to the end.”

Despite the result, Newton was pleased with her team’s effort in the regular season finale.

“It was a good way to end the season and get ready for tournament because Medfield will probably be seeded either one or two in the Division 2 South so it will be good for us to know going into tournament that we can play very competitively with the number one or two seed,” Newton said.

Dover-Sherborn (9-8-1) has dealt with injuries to its defense over the last several games, according to Newton and that has been an adjustment the Raiders are in the process of making as new players step in and step up.

“Our defense was doing well communicating,” Newton said. “We are really trying to focus on communicating and making sure that we are going to ball and that they’re watching their players at the same time.”

At 9-8-1 Dover-Sherborn will await the announcement of its seeding in the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional State Tournament, which will be made Thursday.

“We are looking forward to postseason,” said Newton. “This is good, it is sad to end on a loss but it shows us the potential we can do in tournament if we put our mind to it. We have a strong schedule so we’ve had a lot of very competitive games so that will help us in the postseason.”

Medfield finishes the regular season at 16-2. The Warriors offense was led by Wasley (five goals) and Katie Ott (four goals).