By Jordan J. Michael

NIAGARA COUNTY –– Lady Dutch lacrosse players love to win. It doesn’t really matter what city they’re in.

Guilderland players Erin Mossop, Jess Madsen, Shelby Iapoce, and Amanda Van Auken went to the Buffalo area for the Empire State Summer Games and helped the Adirondack women’s lacrosse team win its first medal in nine years of competition.

Adirondack beat Central, 11 to 6, on Sunday for the bronze medal. Mossop scored three goals and Madsen had eight saves in goal. Iapoce and Van Auken played defense in all six games for Adirondack.

“We get to interact with all the best players in the state,” said Mossop after a tight 11-to-10 loss to Western on Saturday.

“This is the perfect way to see where you stand,” said Van Auken. “All the best are here.”

In Saturday’s game, Adirondack had a chance to play for the gold medal if it won by four goals. Instead, the team lost by one and settled for the bronze-medal game.

“Our region has grown a lot,” Iapoce said.

“You see much better players out here than usual,” said Madsen. “We have to step our game up. It’s much harder.”

Saturday’s game against Western was fairly even throughout. Lauren Smith’s two early goals put Adirondack up, 2 to 0, but Western came back to tie with goals from Lauren Gerrie and Devon Collins.

“This is something new for all of us,” Van Auken said. “The players and coaches are different. We have more options.”

Again, Adirondack went up by two with goals from Adrianne Devine and Alexandria Brannigan, but Western answered back to tie it at 4 to 4 with six minutes left in the first half.

“We work hard and push ourselves,” said Iapoce, who had a handful of great stick checks in the game. “We’re constantly learning from all these different people that we meet.”

The roles reversed and Western was now up by two goals. Adirondack was down, 6 to 5, at halftime after Devine scored with a laser-beam shot.

The back-and-forth scoring continued until the very end. Mossop curled around the goal and scored to cut Western’s lead to one, and Julia Sirianni tied the game at 8 to 8. Madsen had some great saves, but committed a foul, which forced her to stand behind Claire Costanza, who scored on the empty net.

Western went up by three after the penalty, but Madsen denied that it was her fault or that it ruined the game for Adirondack. “I was trying to cut off the pass,” she said. “I didn’t even see that girl coming.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” Mossop said in Madsen’s defense. “We’ll get past it.”

The Lady Dutch players had an opportunity to learn under a new coach at the Games. Mossop told The Enterprise that Mary Lou Vosurgh is “great at teaching defensive mentality.”

The Lady Dutch will be going for a fifth straight Class A title next spring and Mossop, Iapoce, Madsen, and Van Auken already have a head start after expanding their skills at the Games.

“It’s competitive and friendly at the same time,” Mossop said. “Everything is so nice.”