The women’s lacrosse team fell to Bryant in a high-scoring road matchup on Saturday, dropping to 0-4 to begin the season. While the Leopards totaled 14 goals, with four players finding the back of the net at least two times, the defense couldn’t keep the Bulldogs at bay, allowing a season-high 17 goals.
“Bryant was a game that showed how much heart our team has. We were down eleven to three in the first half and came back, scoring eleven goals in the second. Playing teams like Bryant has taught us the mental and physical strength we have,” junior attacker Abby Romano said.
The game started out poorly for the Maroon and White as Bryant began the game on a 5-1 run before the Leopards could get their feet set. From there, they tried to battle back as goals from Romano and senior attacker Katie Chiasson cut the Bulldogs’ lead to two.
From there, Bryant dominated the rest of the first half, ripping off six straight goals to extend its lead to three.
Despite the large margin and the additional Bryant goal right out of halftime, the Leopards did not give up in the second half.
“What drove us to a more successful second half was knowing we are a better team than what we were showing at the time,” Romano said. “That gave us the extra push we needed. Although we would have rather started off with more fire, I think Saturday showed us how much resilience we have as a team.”
The Leopards then went on a 5-1 run of their own that included two more goals from Romano. She ended the day with four goals, tying with sophomore attacker Sara Rogers for the most goals in a single game this year.
Bryant did not go away easily, as they put in four out of the next five goals. When the game looked out of reach, the Leopards once again battled back, scoring five straight goals to end the game.
Despite the valiant effort, the comeback came up just short with the score ending 17-14. The team, however, said the massive comeback was a catalyst to get them rolling out of this four-game rut.
“Losing is never fun but … we learned a lot coming off the loss against Bryant,” Romano said. “Our second-half comeback from Saturday has given us more motivation and confidence to succeed in our next games.”
While the loss stung, there were many bright spots for Coach McConnell and the team. After only managing to score four goals at home to Wagner last Wednesday, the Leopards put 14 goals in the back of the net with four different players scoring multiple goals.
“We have a lot of depth on our team and as the season progresses we will continue to have multiple opportunities to score like we did playing Bryant,” Romano said. “Many aspects of our offense came together as the game kept going which allowed us to trust each other in the second half.”
Lafayette has just two more out-of-conference games before it enters Patriot League play, including tomorrow when the Leopards take on Canisius at 11:30 a.m. for their Athlete Ally game.
“Our team is very talented, unfortunately, we have fallen short a couple of times in the past. However, our mentality and work ethic will definitely pay off in future competitions,” Romano said.
