Last Saturday, as Spring Break drew to a close, the Colgate Women’s Lacrosse West Coast Road Trip did the same. On a Saturday afternoon matchup, the Raiders fell in a heartbreaker 14-11 to the University of Oregon Ducks, thus ending Colgate’s five-game win streak. Four days later, they thoroughly dominated the Binghamton Bearcats, 13-6 at Tyler’s Field.

Overall, it was a successful road trip. The team won two games against California opponents before falling to Oregon.

“While we did win both of our games in California, we were really disappointed to have lost to Oregon,” Head Coach Heather Bliss said. “It was nice to be back home and playing on Tyler’s field for our Binghamton game. We know that every team we face from here on out is looking to take us down. We are making practices hard and forcing the team to compete against one another so when we face our competition we are more than ready.”

At the very beginning of the first half it seemed like the Raiders were going to win another. Only 20 seconds into the half, the Raiders got ahead 1-0 when first-year midfielder Courtney Miller put one in the back of the net. This was Colgate’s only lead in the game. This early goal seemed to wake Oregon up, as they scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead. Not long afterwards, however, the Raiders scored two goals in a span of 19 seconds at 25:35 and 25:16 to knot things up at three. Senior midfielder Ashley Didio scored Colgate’s second goal, her 100th at Colgate, while sophomore midfielder Colleen Bubnack added the third. Throughout the rest of the half, the Ducks dominated the game, going on a 7-1 spree to end to put the game at 10-4, before junior attack Brie Moran and Bubnack scored to put the Raiders within four, as the half ended with the score 10-6 in Oregon’s favor.

The beginning of the second half was similar to the first in that the Ducks came out firing from all cylinders. Their greatest lead in the half was 13-7 at one point before the Raiders attempted to mount a comeback but fell a little short. Colgate’s last three goals came on its man-up as senior Maddie Kearns, Miller and Moran all scored in the last twelve and a half minutes of the second half.

Bubnack and Moran led the Raider attack with three goals and an assist apiece, while Miller scored twice in the loss.

Coach Bliss gave her opinion on what the Raiders lacked in Saturday’s game. “During the Oregon game we threw the ball away in transition and could not finish our shots on attack,” she said. “Those few missed opportunities really hurt us and in the end proved more than we could overcome.”

On Wednesday, Colgate hosted the Binghamton Bearcats in their first home game in a little over two weeks. As opposed to Saturday’s game, this time around the Raiders fell behind early in the first half, as Binghamton scored the first goal at the 2:07 mark of the first half. The Raiders, however, quickly tied things up at one a little fewer than two minutes later, when junior midfielder Meghan Lawler scored. Several minutes later, at the 7:22 mark, Binghamton took their last lead of the game. From then on, it was all Colgate. The Raiders dominated the rest of the half, scoring two unanswered goals to take the lead, and after trading goals to put the game 4-3 in Colgate’s favor, the Raiders scored four unanswered goals to go to the locker room with a commanding 8-3 lead.

The second half brought more dominance from the Raiders’ part. They scored two quick goals in the first five minutes, one by junior Alex Kuntz and the other one by Miller. Binghamton scored again to cut the Colgate lead to 10-4, but that was still not enough. Three minutes later, Miller would score her third goal of the game to put the score at 11-4. The last two Raider goals were scored by senior tri-captain Ashley Didio, and Colgate would go on to win the game 13-6.

Bubnack led the team in points with two goals and seven assists, while Miller scored season-high four goals for the second time this year. Meanwhile, first-year goaltender Christina Roa had a career-high ten saves.

The women’s lacrosse team has their goals for the rest of the season very clear in their minds.

“In the final weeks of the season we are looking to accomplish the goals we set during pre-season,” Bliss said. “Those are to win out in the Patriot League and host the tournament. We are looking to repeat as champions and get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.”

The Raiders, who are currently one of three undefeated teams in Patriot League play, will next travel to Navy on Saturday for an early afternoon game that will be on national television on CBS College Sports. The Mids are 2-0 in Patriot League; Bucknell is currently 3-0.