No. 1 Cleveland Heights Girls' Lacrosse Falls to Hudson

The Hudson girls’ lacrosse team rallied and scored the game’s final four goals to defeat Ohio’s No. 1 team Cleveland Heights, 10-9, on Monday afternoon at Kent State’s Dix Stadium in boggy conditions.

“It was a bit of an odd game. Unfortunately, we ended up on the short end,” Tigers coach Terry Saylor said. “It was a game of runs.”

Cleveland Heights started off well, leading, 5-1, but Hudson, ranked 11th, rallied to take a 6-5 lead. Cleveland got on top again, 9-6, before the Explorers’ decisive run. Carol Ryan led the Tigers (8-2) with three goals.

“Our defense wasn’t as good as it typically is,” Saylor said. “At that point, with a 9-6 lead, we should have been able to finish out that game, and we weren’t able to do it.”

Hudson (4-1) has been Cleveland Heights’ nemesis recently, knocking them out of the playoffs in a regional final last year and a regional semifinal in 2009. Saylor said the Explorers were very prepared on Monday.

“They run the field well and they know how to play against us. They played a nice defense against us. Shut us down pretty well. We were averaging 17 goals a game and we scored nine,” Saylor said. “We didn’t play as confidently as we typically play.”

Monday’s game had quite a scheduling history. Cleveland Heights and Hudson were originally scheduled to play on April 4, but bad weather postponed the game until Monday. Heavy morning rain moved the game from Hudson to KSU with the original start time changing from 5 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Coach Saylor is looking to insert senior Kelly Jones into the lineup this week to help take pressure away from Tigers’ scoring stars Meg Lentz and Olivia Lash. Jones, who will play at San Diego State, had a concussion in practice just before the season started.

Cleveland Heights and Laurel School will co-host the Cleveland Invitational at Laurel School on Saturday. Heights will face Upper Arlington of Columbus and New Trier Township High School of Winnetka, IL. The Tigers begin play at 10 a.m.