Cambridge 4-12 Loughborough

According to popular myth, good things come in small packages. In the case of the Cambridge Women’s Lacrosse side, the next three year’s worth of good things may have just arrived in a Berkhamsted and England livery clad special delivery. Making her debut for the Blue’s side, Downing Fresher and former England Under-19 Captain Georgie Hurt dominated play in last Saturday’s friendly against Loughborough, spending more time in possession of the ball than any other player on the pitch. Despite a sterling performance from the young player, Hurt could not prevent the heavy defeat in their pre-season warm up match. Observers have tipped her for big things on the University and International scene with her team mates describing her effect on the Blues side as being “truly exceptional”, but still she could not do enough to stem the tide of the Loughborough attack.

The Blues side made a somewhat uncertain start to their 2007-8 campaign under a steely Midland sky. Despite moments of individual brilliance, notably from Charlotte Younge and Emily Knight who made a series of impressive runs down the wing, repeated failures to work coherently as a team saw the Blues struggle in the second half of the match and finish by conceding a 12-4 defeat. In a promising start, the side went 3-1 up by the end of the first quarter but substitutions, according to captain Alex Carnegie-Brown designed to enable some of the substantial fresher intake a chance to show their prowess, saw Loughborough creep ahead and by the end of the second quarter the side had gone 5-4 down. This slipped further in the third quarter and despite repeated efforts by the Younge-Knight combination, as well as bringing Hurt back on in the last quarter, no further goals slipped past the tight Loughborough defence. Indeed, with the exception of some rare attacking plays, for much of the second half, the sight of eleven light blue shirts locked in a desperate defensive battle around their own goal was a common one.

Hurt could not prevent the heavy defeat in their pre-season warm up

Carnegie-Brown described herself as being “very much satisfied” with the performance and told Varsity that the match had been a chance for the entire squad to gain “valuable match experience” ahead of the start of the BUSA league next week. The first team will face Bristol, who finished one place ahead of Cambridge in third in the Premier Women’s South League last year, on Saturday 17 and are hoping that this will be the start of a campaign that will lead them back to the trophy. Last year Cambridge thrashed the Bristol side in a tense away match in October, before having to concede defeat to them at home a month later. This year the Blues will be hoping to reverse last year’s return result on their road to next year’s Varsity Match, where they hope to overturn their defeat this March.

Varsity Sports Reporter