Mustang women's lacrosse team wins tourney

With six national titles under its belt, the Cal Poly women’s lacrosse team is back in the winner’s circle after capturing the Santa Barbara Shootout championship last weekend with an 8-6 win over UC Santa Barbara in the title game.

The Mustangs started off the weekend Saturday morning with a win against the post-collegiate alumni team Tri Check, 10-6. Moving right along, it held Arizona State to just one goal, defeating the Sun Devils 13-1.

Cal Poly (5-0) then went on to rout USC (Saturday night) and Pepperdine (Sunday morning) by respective scores of 17-0 and 13-0.

“I think you could tell it was the fifth game of two days and because we were really tired and not playing our ‘A’ game – it made it a closer game,” Cal Poly captain and attack player Janelle Jones said of the title game. “But even though we were down and tired, it showed a lot about the mental composure for our team.”

Top scorers Brittany Jones and Hayley Saxton, both midfielders, paved the way for the win against UC Santa Barbara.

“Overall I was really impressed because this was our first weekend,” Cal Poly captain and center Julie Friesen said. “A lot of refs and coaches came up to our coach and complimented us not just on our stick skills, but on how much fun we were having together on the field. They were saying that they haven’t seen a team that cohesive on the field. That’s the best compliment as a team that we could get.”

As with most teams, graduated seniors have moved on and new freshmen are moved in. But team camaraderie is still a priority and a dynamic element for the Mustangs.

“We’ve played teams that have better individual skills than we do, but individuals don’t win a game, teams do,” Friesen said. “That starts with us – we respect each other on and off the field. That makes us a much more intimidating team to play so when you take one of us on, you take on the other 12 on the field.”

That could come into play when Cal Poly faces UCLA in its first home conference game at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Mustangs will squeeze another game into their weekend as they travel back down the coast to face UC Santa Barbara again.

“We always have a big rivalry against UCSB,” Janelle Jones said. “We play them so many times, so you know how everyone on their team plays and they know how you play too. They’re an aggressive team but I think that we have better skills than they do and we’ll be able to beat them.”