The Spire

Jake McGuire ’27

Staff Writer

Going into this past weekend, Holy Cross Women’s Lacrosse was riding a nine-game win streak, their longest since 1980 when they went on a program record 11-game-winning streak. After getting off to a slow 1-2 start, including a 12-goal loss to Stanford, they turned their season around into one of the best seasons they have had in years. 

Starting with a win over the University of New Hampshire on February 24, they got on a hot streak, going 9-0 in the stretch. They narrowly beat UMASS 12-10 for the first time since 2009. They beat Iona 19-6, their biggest blowout of the season. In this game, senior Lauren Drillock scored six assists, tying the program record, and the team had fifteen assists altogether, the most in a single game in program history. 

They then cruised through league play, defeating Colgate, Lafayette, Bucknell, and American with a combined score of 60-42 over those four games. Junior Sally Zinsner scored her 50th career goal against Lafayette, and Junior Isabella Miller broke the single-season record for most assists. She has 38 assists for far on the season, including six in one game.  

However, their impressive win-streak this weekend ended with a tough loss against Navy. It was a tightly contested game throughout the first half, with the game being a 7-7 tie going into halftime. However, Navy came out strong in the third, outscoring the Crusaders 5-1. They held onto that lead for a 15-9 victory and gave Holy Cross their first league loss of the year. On the positive side, senior Lauren Drillock scored her one-hundredth career goal in the game, becoming only the twelfth Crusader in program history to do so. 

With the loss, they fell into a three-way tie with both Navy and Army in second, behind only undefeated Loyola Maryland. All three of these teams are 4-1 in league play, and hopefully the Crusaders can rack up some more wins to put them back on top. The Crusaders have still yet to play both Army and Loyola Maryland this season. 

Loyola Maryland is the defending champion of the Patriot League, going undefeated last year in the conference before winning the championship. They are looking to repeat for their fifth consecutive Patriot League title, and their seventh in nine years. They have not lost a game to a Patriot League team since losing to Navy in the 2018 league championship. Loyola Maryland comes to Worcester on April 20, in what may end up being their toughest matchup of the year. If they can string together some wins, including one over Loyola Maryland, the Crusaders have a chance to be able to host the league semifinals and championship, something they have not done since they went undefeated and won the league championship in 2007. 

Their next game is this weekend, March 18, when they travel to Pennsylvania to take on fifth-place Lehigh. They have four games left this season. After Lehigh, they will hit the road to travel to West Point, before coming back for the last two home games of the year. These last games will be against first-place Loyola Maryland and last-place Boston University. Make sure to come out and support!

Copy Edited by Caroline Kramer ’26