Cambridge Women’s Lacrosse Blues beat Birmingham 10-9 in a dramatic and hotly contested BUCS Championship Final held in Sheffield. This victory sees the Blues end their season unbeaten, having won Varsity, their BUCS league and the Championship. But Birmingham were determined to spoil Cambridge’s party, pushing them right to the wire and forcing them to produce their very best lacrosse to finally steal the victory and break the hearts of their opposition.

It was Birmingham who started the brightest, creating chances and putting early pressure on the Cambridge defence. Numerous saves from star goalkeeper Erin Walters denied Birmingham the early advantage, but a serious injury to Birmingham’s Emily Hughes caused a lengthy delay and an opportunity for Cambridge to regroup. The Blues capitalised on this break, with Birmingham looking noticeably shaken up by the injury to one of their best players, and goals from the talismanic Laura Plant and super-speedy Ellie Walshe made the score 2-0 to the Blues. Birmingham hit back with an excellent team goal, finished off by Alice Bruynseels, but Cambridge remained firmly in control of play and dominated the possession. When Birmingham received a yellow card for rough play, Captain Alana Livesey punished the opposition, firing in 2 goals in quick succession.

With the Blues comfortably in the driving seat, Birmingham’s coach called a timeout in the hopes of stemming the Cambridge flow, and this tactical move initially paid off as Birmingham came back with two fast goals. However, star-forward Georgie Prichard produced the reply, bursting through the midfield and burying her powerful shot into the Birmingham net. The half ended with another excellent team goal from Birmingham, but it was Cambridge who had the lead as the teams went into half-time.

Cambridge were once again slow to start in the second half, with Birmingham showing renewed determination and vigour. However, as in the first half, boisterous Erin Walters produced some stunning saves to deny Birmingham. With the Cambridge defence under pressure from Birmingham’s numerous attacking chances, two free-positions were converted by Nicole Pattersen, followed up by another from Bruynseels, handing Birmingham the lead for the first time in the match.

With the score 7-5 in favour to Birmingham, they followed the advice of their coach, holding possession and frustrating the Blues. However, Cambridge managed to finally steal the ball and score, but their efforts came to nothing when the goal was disallowed. The ensuing throw from the Goalkeeper was intercepted by Walshe who found Livesey to score. Shortly afterwards, Livesey produced a fantastic piece of individual skill, uncharacteristically towering above the Birmingham goalkeeper and placing the ball into the net for the equaliser.

The teams quickly exchanged goals to bring the score to 8-8 with just five minutes to go. It looked as if Birmingham would have the advantage in the last minutes when Dani Allard was given a yellow card for rough play and captain Lafferty capitalised to put Birmingham in front. However, with Allard back on the pitch Cambridge were determined not to let the final slip away from them. Prichard converted Walshe’s missed free-position to level the scores and a deserved yellow card to Birmingham’s Hollie Harrington handed the advantage back to Cambridge. Despite having a man down, Birmingham’s Jess Adams broke through the Cambridge defence but agonisingly hit the crossbar with Walters beaten. With just seconds left on the clock, Walshe raced up the pitch to find Plant, who slotted her well-placed shot into the Birmingham net to dramatically win the match and seal the Cambridge victory.

Even a broken down bus on the way back from Sheffield could not dampen the spirits of the Blues, who have produced a season that will no doubt go down in not only Cambridge Lacrosse history, but Cambridge sport as a whole. Co-Captains Isy Foster and Alana Livesey will be delighted with this year’s performances, which have seen the Blues go from strength to strength to finally and deservedly be crowned National Champions.