The SLU women’s lacrosse team fell to a 2-4 record following a narrow 8-7 loss to Brockport State on Saturday in Rochester, NY. Despite the early 2-4 record, the Saints have had an eventful season thus far with the debut of the new field turf at North Country Field and a team trip to West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Saints opened the season with the first lacrosse game ever played at the new and improved North Country Field against the #7 nationally ranked Cortland State Red Dragons. The Saints started off slow, with a 9-3 score deficit after the first half. The Saints scoring attack was revived in the second half by scoring four of the first five goals of the second half.
The Saints narrowed the score to 10-7, however, Cortland would eventually pull a win, 14-8.
Three players scored a pair of goals for the Saints: Kaitlyn Fashel ’11, Brigid Hurley ’13, and Alanna Piroli ’12.
During spring break, the women’s lacrosse team took their talents to south Florida to play Fredonia State, UMass-Dartmouth and Connecticut College. SLU compiled a 1-2 record during the trip, defeating UMass-Dartmouth and nearly beating Fredonia State and losing their final game to Connecticut College.
Against Fredonia State, the Saints had composed a 9-6 first half lead against the Blue Devils. However, in the second half, the Blue Devils responded by scoring the first four goals. Fredonia State would seal the deal by scoring the final goal at 3:13 remaining to win the game 13-12.
Kaitlyn Fashel ’11, Paige Powell ’12, Kim Morse ’11, and Brigid Hurley ’13 each netted a pair of goals for the Saints.
St. Lawrence earned their first victory of their season against UMass-Dartmouth with an 18-5 blowout.
The Saints displayed dynamic explosiveness on offense as ten different players each scored goals of their own. Alanna Piroli ’12 would lead all scorers with 5 goals.
Stingy defense would also be very critical for the Saints. The defense created 17 first-half turnovers and stout goaltending led by captain Anna Marchand ’11 only allowed five goals in 51:38 of action.
In the final game against Connecticut College, Kendall Harty ’12 netted 3 goals to lead the Saints in scoring. St. Lawrence outshot the Camels 35-27 but were not efficient enough on the offensive end as they went on to fall to Connecticut College 13-8.
When asked about her team’s play in Florida, Senior Morse ’11 responded, “We are learning a lot this season from our play and trying to improve with each game. We had two close games that we should have won. Our third game we won by a large margin.”
The Saints returned back to North Country Field in style, as they would cruise to a 17-7 victory over Potsdam State. St. Lawrence won the major facets of the game, with a 37-18 shot advantage and a 23-18 ground ball advantage.
Margie Bailey ’12 scored five goals to lead the Saints followed with five points from Kim Cooper ’11.
On Saturday, the women’s lacrosse team hosted Brockport State. The Saints held a 5-3 lead at halftime however; Brockport pulled away to earn an 8-7 victory. Morse led the Saints in scoring with two goals.
The Saints have already gained valuable experience and knowledge in their young season and hope that it carries over to this weekend’s game versus Liberty League rival William Smith and other Liberty League foes. Morse says their game plan for Liberty League play will be to “focus more on our offense and taking effective shots in preparation for the three games we have scheduled this week.”
