By Elliott Bell
The Pride women’s lacrosse team could not overcome a late surge by No. 4 ranked Loyola College, who scored four of the games last five goals to win 12-7 last Sunday at James M. Shuart Stadium.
The loss drops the Pride to 2-2 on the year, and ends its two game win streak. With the win, Loyola ups its record to 5-1, and ups its win steak to two.
So far this season the trouble spot for the Pride has been the start of games. Too many times the Pride has fallen behind early with sluggish play in the first 15 minutes of the game. On Sunday, that was the case again.
Loyola struck first, and often. They scored four of the games first five goals to go ahead 4-1 with 18 minutes left to play in the first half. Junior Stephanie Walker tallied two of the first four goals, including the one that put the Greyhounds up 4-1 at the 11:29.
The Pride started to play its game, and answered back scoring two goals in the next four minutes of the contest. Junior Mary Romano scored at the 13:09 mark to get the Pride within two and junior Tara Buecker’s goal cut the deficit to 4-3.
Another goal from Walker and one from senior Jaclyn Borrone pushed the lead to 6-4 with 12:22 left in the half. The Pride, however, had the last laugh in the first half when junior Jen Maget scored with 6:22 left before half.
Again the Pride came out slow to start a half and let in two easy goals to begin the second stanza. Walker notched her fourth of the match and pushed the lead to four.
Once again the Pride fought back, scoring two goals and bringing the game within reach at 8-6 with 17:15 to play. But that was it for the Pride. From there the game slowly got out of reach and another one slipped away.
Down by only two goals, the Pride allowed Loyola to score the next three goals of the contest. Actually, it didn’t allow Loyola to score the next three; it allowed senior Jen Schuerholz to score three goals in under a ten minutes span.
With the score 11-6 and the game was pretty much decided, the Pride tallied one more, as did the Greyhounds. Junior Caitlin Connolly had the last goal for the Pride on the day.
Loyola senior goalie Kim Lawton played the first 30 minutes of the match. She made one save on five shots to earn the victory. Sophomore Cindy Nicolaus played the second half for the Greyhounds and tallied three saves.
Pride goalie Lisa Papa played the entire game and made nine saves, with five coming in the first half.
Freshman Kim Hillier finished as the Pride’s leading scorer with two goals and junior Bridget Eder added a game-high five ground balls.On the season Hillier and Becky Thorn lead the team with seven points.
Hillier has five goals and two assists, while Thorn has garnered all her points through goals.
The Pride has five players averaging more than a point per game so far this season.
The Pride return to action March 21 when it travels to Boston College.
Junior middle Caitlin Connolly goes back on defense this weekend vs. Loyola.