Bono Has Beautiful Day, Garnet Down Owls
BRYN MAWR, Pa. -- Freshman Alex Gilbert-Bono picked up her second career hat trick and sophomore Anna de Regt added three goals of her own as the Garnet closed out 2007 with a 13-7 victory at Bryn Mawr. Swarthmore completes its season at 11-7, 4-5 in the Centennial.
The Owls (3-13, 0-9 CC) held a 3-2 lead through 15 minutes, but Swarthmore went on a 4-goal run to end the half. Senior Katie Crawford got the equalizer with 13:34 to play off of a Gilbert-Bono feed and de Regt added two goals in 28 seconds a few minutes later. Freshman Abbe Muller closed out the first-half scoring with 7:20 on the clock, giving the Garnet a 6-3 lead.
Bryn Mawr sophomore Georgia Lawrence tried to keep the Owls close, scoring her second and third goals of the game in the first seven minutes of the second half, but there was just too much Gilbert-Bono. The freshman followed a Megan Sanborn '08 goal with a score of her own with 26:05 to play to make the score 8-4. Following a Lawrence goal, sophomore Marissa Schaffer scored off a Muller feed and Gilbert-Bono added two more goals midway through the period to increase the lead to 11-5.
Muller and Schaffer added goals in the 54th minute to ice the game.
Garnet junior goalkeeper Susannah Blair made seven saves while improving her season record to 9-6. Owls netminder Stephanie Hilton kept the game close with 22 saves.
Swarthmore faced an uphill climb in 2007 due to a tough schedule in the stacked Centennial Conference. The conference season opened with games against the #1-, #4-, and #15-ranked teams in the country. After those games, Swarthmore rallied to win 4 of their final 6 Centennial contests but came up just one game short of a playoff spot.
A number of young players emerged for the Garnet during the season. Schaffer established herself early with four-goals in the team's season-opening win at Moravian and never stopped scoring, finishing with a team-high 38 goals--the highest total by a Swarthmore player since Jackie Kahn '04 netted 54 in 2004.
Freshmen Gilbert-Bono and Muller also played major roles. Gilbert-Bono's blazing speed led to a number of easy clears and fast-break chances, and her 12 assists were good for third on the team. Muller provided energy and astounding offensive efficiency off the bench--her 0.594 shot percentage paced the club.
Junior Megan Sanborn continued to do a lot of everything, contributing 22 goals and leading the team in assists (19), draw controls (50), ground balls (47), and caused turnovers (31).
Seniors Roth, Crawford, and Athena Samaras combined for 74 goals and were go-to threats on offense all season long. After an injury-plagued start, Roth came on strong with 17 goals in the final five games of the year and leaves Swarthmore ranked eighth on the all-time scoring list with 127 goals.
The seniors will be missed, but Swarthmore will return its entire starting defense and plenty of offensive firepower in 2008 and will be well-placed to make a run for the second conference playoff spot in three years.