Things have not exactly gone as planned for the women’s lacrosse team this season. After a tough non-conference schedule that included a seven-game road trip, the Raiders were just 2-7 entering Patriot League play. League play, however, is an opportunity to regroup and get back on track. Or that’s what the Raiders were hoping as they traveled to Washington for the league opener against American last Saturday.

The game began in less than promising fashion for Colgate, as the Eagles stormed out of the gate to take an early 4-1 lead. Undaunted, the Raiders cut the deficit to 5-3, but American scored the final three goals of the half to carry a rather comfortable 8-3 lead into halftime.

After an early second half goal made it 9-3, the Raiders scored back-to-back tallies to come within four of the tough American squad. Four, however, would be as close as Colgate would get.

The two teams traded goals to make the score 11-7 before the Eagles scored another pair of unanswered goals to increase their lead to 13-7. The final score was 15-10.

Leading the way for Colgate was sophomore Ashely Didio, who recorded a career-high seven points in the game, including five goals. This is even more impressive when considering Colgate’s total output of ten goals; Didio had a hand in 70% of the scoring.

Also impressive was first-year Meghan Lawler, who had a hat trick and an assist. Rounding out the goal-scorers for Colgate were sophomore Molly Ortolano and junior Jessica Van der Meulen, each with a single tally. The scoring certainly had a local feeling for the Raiders, as all of the goals were scored by upstate New York natives. In net, sophomore Sara Drexler was solid, stopping nine shots for the Raiders.

With the loss, the Raiders drop to 0-1 in the Patriot League and 2-8 overall. They have a lot of work ahead of them to have any chance of matching the output of last season’s squad. After similar struggles in non-conference play, Colgate regrouped and went 5-1 in the Patriot League regular season before losing a nail-biter to Holy Cross in the league championship game last year.

Fortunately, there is still time and the season is young. As of now, the Patriot League is all that matters. A couple of wins in a row could help this team regain its confidence and spark another run deep into the Patriot League tournament.

The Raiders have a pair of important home games coming up. On Saturday they hope to get their first Patriot League win of the season as they play host to Bucknell at noon on Tyler’s Field. On Tuesday they host Albany in an important non-conference contest; game time is 7p.m.