All is well again for the Women’s Lacrosse team. The beginning of the season may have been disappointing, but that is in the past. After an impressive comeback victory against rival Bucknell and big home win against Albany, the Raiders look poised to rise to the top of the Patriot League once again.

Entering the Bucknell game, things were looking grim for Colgate, as it was only 2-8 overall and 0-1 in conference play. At halftime, things were looking even worse. Faced with a 4-1 deficit, the season could easily have been doomed with yet another defeat. The Raiders, however, were not ready to wave the white flag.

Senior Tara Casey and first-year Katie Holland scored back-to-back goals within the first two minutes of the second half, cutting the deficit to one and giving Colgate something to build off of.

The Bison fought back and scored, but after another pair of unanswered goals, this time scored by sophomores Sarah Kellogg and Ashley Didio, the score was knotted at five.

There was no looking back for the Raiders, as they scored seven of the next nine goals to take a commanding 12-7 lead. The final score was a convincing 13-9 victory.

“I think the most important factors to the explosion in the second half and the win was the result of a team effort,” senior Kate Metevia said after the comeback. “We finally played the way the way we knew we could.”

Leading the way for Colgate was junior Lindsay Pittard, who had a hat trick and added an assist. First-year Meghan Lawler scored two goals and an assist, while Casey and sophomore Molly Carroll had two goals apiece.

After the game, Carroll, who was impressive at both ends of the field, was named the Patriot League Defender of the Week for the third time this season.

Fresh off of a much-needed win, the Raiders’ confidence was high as they took on Albany on Tuesday. Unlike the Bucknell contest, Colgate jumped off to a quick start against the Great Danes. Five different players scored within the first 13 minutes of play as the Raiders jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. The dominance continued throughout the remainder of the first half, as they took a comfortable 9-2 lead into halftime.

Everything did not go quite as smoothly in the second half, as the Great Danes outscored Colgate 6-2, but it was not nearly enough as the Raiders won 11-8 to capture their second victory in three days.

“We finally played our style of lacrosse, Colgate lacrosse,” Metevia continued.”I guess our keys to victory would be to calm down out there and play like we know we can.”

With a record of 4-8 overall, 1-1 in the Patriot League, Colgate is more than capable of salvaging this once disastrous season. With the team focused on winning in league play, the Bucknell game was a huge momentum builder as well as a very important victory in terms of league standings.

The Raiders take the field at Lehigh this Friday for another crucial Patriot League showdown. Game time is 7p.m. They host Syracuse in a non-conference contest at Tyler’s Field on Wednesday, also at 7 p.m.