The women’s lacrosse team traveled to No. 16/18 Penn State last weekend to face arguably the toughest competition it will meet all season. The Nittany Lions proved to be too much for the Raiders to handle, earning an 18-3 victory in a game that saw a lot more positives for Colgate than the score shows.

“We knew how high they were ranked but we just wanted to go out there and play well,” first-year midfielder Missy Giusti said. “We hung with them at certain points of the game. At times our offense would play well and then our defense would play well. We just couldn’t piece the whole game together.”

Colgate managed to grab an early 1-0 lead on senior Lindsay Pittard’s goal just 50 seconds into the game, but Penn State quickly recovered and put the game out of reach with nine consecutive goals to end the half. Senior midfielder Jessica Van der Meulen and sophomore midfielder Meghan Lawler also scored for the Raiders, while sophomore Brie Moran recorded an assist. For the Nittany Lions, attacker Mary LeNoir led the scoring effort with four goals and an assist. The game against Penn State was one in a series of formidable early season opponents for Colgate, which the team feels confident will help them down the road in league games against Patriot League foes.

“It’s too early to make a final decision about our season right now,” first-year defender Sofia Adler said. “It’s a long season and these early games are just preparing us. We know that we can still have a very successful season especially in the Patriot League.”

Colgate will face their first Patriot League opponent of the season Saturday at 1 p.m. on Tyler’s Field, when they take on two-time defending league champion Holy Cross.