To mark the unofficial beginning of spring, the women’s lacrosse team began its 2008 campaign last Saturday by traveling down to Long Island to take on the Stony Brook Seawolves. Unfortunately, Colgate dropped a high-scoring and fast-paced contest, 18-14. The Raiders’ offense was clicking on all cylinders against Stony Brook, but the defense could not keep pace.

“One of the biggest positives from the game was our offensive output,” head coach Heather Bliss said. “Putting up 14 goals for us is a really good thing. We were really excited by some of the play, the unselfishness, and the cohesiveness we showed at times.”

Senior Jessica Van der Meulen opened the scoring just 35 seconds into the game. A Stony Brook goal followed Van der Muelen’s score, but thanks to senior captain Lindsay Pittard’s score, Colgate grabbed an early 2-1 lead. However, that would be Colgate’s last lead of the contest, as a quick Stony Brook run saw the score jump to 7-3. The Seawolves would eventually take an 8-6 lead heading into the locker room.

“When we were playing together, we were able to make runs and cut the deficit to two or one goals,” Coach Bliss said. “Unfortunately, there was never a full 60 minutes of that cohesiveness.”

In the first 14:35 of the second half, Colgate and Stony Brook each split eight goals, which made the score 12-10 in Stony Brook’s favor. The floodgates subsequently opened, allowing Stony Brook to notch five conseuctive goals (four free position shots) to put the game out of reach. Although Colgate scored four of the last five goals, it was too little too late as the Raiders ran out of time and could complete their comeback.

Both Pittard and sophomore Brie Moran scored hat tricks in game, spurring on the Raider offense. Meanwhile, Van der Meulen and juniors Molly Carroll and Ashley Didio each had two goals. Stony Brook was paced by Kaitlin Leggio, who finished the game with six goals and two assists in helping the Seawolves outshoot the Raiders 35-31.

“Our defense and midfield definitely have to improve,” Bliss remarked. “We have to work on bringing the ball up the middle of the field when teams pressure us and on tightening up defensively. We really want to keep teams to fewer than 10 goals.”

The Raiders will be back in action this Friday when they visit Binghamton.

“Every game is a big challenge right now,” Bliss said. “Binghamton will be a good test for us. I’m anxious to see how hard we come out after this loss.”