Saturday, April 17, the Hamilton women’s lacrosse team pulled out a nail-biting victory over Trinity, who was ranked #15 nationally going into the matchup. With the win, the Continentals moved to 2–1 on the spring season and earned their debut in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll, up to #21 in the nation.

Courtney Pierre ’21 led the charge on Saturday, tallying six of the team’s eleven goals. Pierre has been a force all season, leading the team in goals and points. With Saturday’s performance, she brings her season total to twelve through just three games.

On the back of this six-goal outburst, Pierre was named both the NESCAC Player of the Week for women’s lacrosse, while also being named the IWCLA Division III National Offensive Player of the week.

Pierre was surprised yet humble after piling up the awards and recognition for her performance: “It’s crazy! I most definitely didn’t head into this season, or into our game against Trinity, with any intention of earning awards or recognition, but I am beyond honored and have so much to be thankful for,” she said. “I owe everything to my amazing teammates who I have learned so much from and who motivate me every day on and off the field.”

The first ten minutes of the game featured some back-and-forth competition. After goals by Olivia Seymour ’22 and Lauren Hamilton ’22, the score was knotted 3–3. Then Hamilton picked up the intensity. Said Pierre, “the desire to win going into the game was stronger than ever because we have had a long-standing rivalry with Trinity and because it was our senior day. With all that going on, our emotions prior to the game were definitely very high, but I credit a huge part of our success to the team-wide composure we held once we stepped on the field.”

And step up they did. Hamilton went on a 4–0 run to take a 7–3 lead into halftime and put the hammer down, to stretch the lead to 9–3 early in the second half. Though Trinity battled back, cutting the once sizable lead to just one in the final minute of the game, senior Megan O’Hara came up with a huge save to seal the win with just under a minute to play.

Earning the Senior Day victory, Pierre credited the rest of her senior class for their leadership. “A huge part of the success and chemistry we are seeing on the field can be attributed to the seniority we have on the team this year. For the most part, both sides of the ball have been playing with each other for a few years now, and that has really helped us learn one another as players, taught us how to maximize each other’s strengths, and fostered a lot of confidence in each of us.”

Though abbreviated, Pierre and the team are extremely grateful for the opportunity they have had to play together one last time on Steuben Field. Having lost their 2020 spring season, Pierre notes that the team is taking nothing for granted this time. “Having experienced the fragility of being student-athlete after losing nearly a year of sport to the pandemic, we truly go out there every day to just have fun, be gritty, and leave everything we have out on the field,”

Looking forward, the team will match up with Trinity again this weekend, looking to complete the season sweep in Hartford as they close out their regular season. Pierre expressed excitement and motivation heading into the rematch. “We typically don’t have the chance to play the same team twice in a row, but I think it’s a super cool thing that we do. We will definitely spend some watching the previous game film and making adjustments on the field both offensively and defensively in anticipation of what we expect Trinity to do on Sunday.”

For Pierre and her teammates, the onus will remain on continuing to play a hard-nosed brand of lacrosse. “We know we can’t make perfect predictions and so we are staying focused on Hamilton lacrosse and the way that we play the game and are heading into the weekend with a ton of excitement and motivation to pull off another win.”

The teams will face off at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 25. With a win, Hamilton has a chance to claim or share a claim of the NESCAC West Division and move on to the NESCAC Crossover Championship.