The women’s lacrosse team (1-9 overall, 0-2 Patriot League) lost to American 16-15 in a nail-biter last Saturday in Washington, D.C. The Leopards held the lead for most of the game before American (5-3 overall, 1-0 Patriot League) went on a five-goal scoring run towards the end, taking the lead with just 1:17 left in regulation and holding on for the victory.
Senior attacker Sarah Bennett led the Leopards in goals, scoring a career-high six. She was supported by senior midfielder Katie Chiasson and freshman attacker Charlotte Edwards, who each scored two goals. Sophomore attacker Sara Rogers, senior midfielder Kerry Tuorto, senior attacker Meghan McLachlan, junior midfielder Claire Culligan and senior attacker Genevieve Strobel all tallied one goal in the game.
“Everyone was playing with their heads up a lot and looking out for each other, so I tried to use my height to my advantage, get my stick up really high and make myself seen,” Bennett said of her approach to Saturday’s game. “The day before the game, [I was] just telling myself to only have eyes for the cage. And every time I had the ball on my stick [I was] just looking to go to goal.”
Bennett currently leads the team in scoring with 17 goals.
The Leopards came out on Saturday swinging, scoring six goals in the first quarter and seven in the second to take a 13-8 lead going into halftime. This was the most the Leopards have scored in any half this season.
However, the Leopards struggled to find the net in the second half, scoring only two goals in the third quarter and being shut out in the fourth.
The Leopards topped their previous goal record of 14 in the game, which Bennett noted has been one of their main objectives this season.
“Last season, we averaged less than eight goals a game. This season, we realized that that is something that we really wanted to change. [We’re] putting a bigger emphasis on shooting as much as we can, and really taking time to place those shots,” she said.
After struggling in all facets of the game in a 15-1 blowout loss against Villanova on March 15, the Leopards looked to regroup and focus on the parts of the game they knew they could control against conference opponent American.
“We struggled a little bit in transition when we played Villanova, so we practiced that a lot and definitely did a lot better against American,” sophomore defender Lindsay Geiger said.
The team hopes to make the Patriot League tournament this season. It is currently 0-2 in Patriot League play, as it lost against Lehigh 15-3 on March 11. The Leopards have seven more games to make up the deficit.
“Lehigh was a really tough game to start off our Patriot League play, but I think that American has really changed the tone of the way that the rest of the season is going to go,” Bennett said. “We came out early and started scoring early. And in a lot of games that we’ve had earlier in the season, the other team has gone up, and then it’s kind of a game of catch-up. Whereas once we were ahead in American, we were kind of shocked because we hadn’t been in that position.”
The Leopards will host Bucknell this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for Community Day.
“Our eyes are still on the prize of getting into the Patriot League tournament, so we definitely want to continue all the good things that we did in American, and win that game,” Geiger said.
