Narrow loss to Navy secures fourth-seed for women’s lacrosse team
By Lindsay Regruto
Staff Writer
A chance to tie the game in its final seconds fell short as the women’s lacrosse team lost at home to Navy 8-7 Saturday.
The Bison jumped to a great start with two consecutive goals by Bonnie Buechel ’09 and Chelsea Peters ’10 in the first four minutes.
The Bison’s offense was unstoppable early as Julia Braun ’11, Michelle Milot ’11 and Laura Van Schaack ’11 each scored, giving the Orange and Blue a 5-1 lead.
The defense was unbeatable as well, allowing only one goal within the first 25 minutes.
But the lead did not last. Navy scored with five minutes left in the half. At the end of the half, Alyssa DeLorenz ’11 made a difficult save, but the Mids recovered the loose ball, scoring with only six seconds left to bring the halftime score to 5-3.
Navy’s momentum continued into the second half. Six minutes later, the Mids picked up a ball in Bison territory, tying the score at 5-5. Catherine Barry ’09 made an amazing interception to break up the Navy offense, but Navy recovered the ball, scoring and breaking into a 6-5 lead.
Down 7-5 with 14 minutes left, the Bison defense gained momentum as DeLorenz made another excellent save. Carol Donohue ’10 put it past the Navy goaltender, closing the gap to a single goal.
Navy scored again with 5:30 on the clock. The Bison answered only 18 seconds later as Donohue scored on a free-position shot, bringing the game to 8-7. Navy won the draw and attempted to run the final five minutes of the game down.
With 30 seconds left, the Mids threw the ball away, but the Orange and Blue picked it up, running down field to call a timeout with only 11 seconds on the clock.
A foul on Buechel after the timeout gave the Orange and Blue one more chance for a shot, but the Bison’s final attempt was deflected. The Bison quickly recovered the rebound, but did not have enough time for a second attempt as time ran out.
“We were all disappointed by the loss, but we’re going to take this week to get better so that we can give Colgate a run for its money,” DeLorenz said.
The Bison outshot the Mids 19-17.
“One of the positives we took away from [the game] was the fact that many of the mistakes we made were little things. Those small mental errors and some of the problems we had are very fixable, and I’m confident we will learn from them and work hard this week,” Barry said.
The team will head into the Patriot League tournament with a 4-2 conference record and an overall record of 9-7.
“I think our team thrives on being the underdog and we definitely don’t take losing lightly. This weekend will be a chance for us to redeem ourselves and finally play a full 60 minutes with no letdowns,” Katie Fox ’10 said.
The Bison will be back to go against Colgate in the Patriot League tournament semifinal game today at 5 p.m. in Hamilton, N.Y.
