The Emmaus High School girls lacrosse team has had a great start to the 2023 regular season, but faced some adversity last week in its first losing week of the season. The Green Hornets lost two of their three games played last week, including their first setback in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference action.

Emmaus dropped a one-goal game at Freedom last Tuesday, 8-7. The Hornets bounced back right away in their next game, winning 16-6 at home over Central Catholic on Thursday. Emmaus closed out the week with a nonconference game at Kennett Consolidated, falling 9-6 on Friday.

Freedom got out to a commanding 4-0 lead early through the first three minutes of action, all coming via free-position goals. Emily Hollinger, who led her team with three goals, ended the scoreless drought with two straight goals. Freedom, however, responded with two straight goals of its own to go back on top by four. They led 6-4 at halftime.

Bri McClain scored her second of two goals with just 0:15 remaining in the third to pull her team to within just one at 7-6. Jordyn Poll then found the back of the net on a free-position goal, her second goal of the game, to tie the game at 7-7 with less than 10 minutes to play. Freedom got a goal via free-position with less than five minutes left and then got a big save out of their goalie on a Green Hornets free-position with less than a minute left to hold on. Olivia Schmidt had an assist and Melea Weber tallied two assists. Alani Shotwell made six saves.

Two days later, Emmaus was able to bounce back as seven different players found the back of the net against the Vikes, led by a game-high six from Hollinger. McClain added a hat trick in the win, while Poll had three assists to go along with a pair of goals. Brooke Peterson had two goals and each of Weber, Evelyn McAllister and Jess Khan contributed one goal. Shotwell finished with two saves and Devin O’Neil had five saves.

McClain led the offensive attack with four goals. Both Poll and Emily Hollinger had one goal with the latter adding two assists. Weber, Olivia Schmidt and Natalie McKiernan all dished out an assist. Shotwell stopped eight shots.

Emmaus heads into this week at 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference.