The Colgate women’s lacrosse team had a successful week, beating both Boston University and Bucknell University.

On Wednesday, March 28, the Raiders hosted the Boston University Terriers in Hamilton at the Beyer-Small ’76 Field. In the first 16 minutes of the game, the Raiders and the Terriers traded goals, with Colgate taking an early 3-2 lead. Senior captain and midfielder Haley O’Hanlon tallied two of the first three goals before senior attack Kristen Brigagliano netted a fourth goal, elevating Colgate to a two-goal lead over the Terriers. Boston quickly retaliated as the first half came to an end and into the second half, taking a 5-2 lead over the Raiders. However, the Raiders offense responded strongly in the second half of the game with O’Hanlon and Brigagliano each completing a hat trick to pull the Raiders back into the lead. Colgate heated up late in the second half and scored five consecutive goals, giving them a 11-6 lead over the Terriers, including three goals from first-year attackman Danielle Van Calcar. O’Hanlon fired her fourth goal of the game with just 2:50 to go in the second half, but Boston University retaliated with a quick pair of goals in the final 2:11 minutes of the game to pull them back within three goals of the Raiders. Notably, sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Croston made a career-high 15 saves and three different players recorded hat tricks on the offensive side of the field. This win was the Raider’s second consecutive win in Patriot League games, elevating their Patriot League record to 2-1 and their overall record to 7-3.

 On Saturday, the team traveled to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to take on the Bucknell Bison at Graham Field. Brigagliano and sophomore attacker Payton Gabriel scored a pair of goals just 21 seconds apart to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead 1:51 into the game. The Bison responded by scoring five of the next six goals, securing a 5-3 lead with 11:50 to go in the first half. Colgate retaliated quickly, scoring six straight goals over the final 9:24 of the first half to turn their two-goal deficit into a 9-5 lead going into halftime. O’Hanlon and Van Calcar extended the Raiders’ consecutive goals streak to eight, each scoring a goal to open up the second half. With another goal, Van Calcar gave Colgate an 11-5 lead and completed her second straight hat trick of the game and fourth of the season. 

Bucknell followed with five goals during the final 14:48 minutes of the game, to which Van Calcar and sophomore attackman, Kate Kelly, each scored goals to provide key insurance goals for the Raiders. The Raiders closed the game with a 13-10 win over the Bucknell Bison for its third consecutive win. Remarkably, Van Calcar became the first Colgate rookie to record four goals and six points in a game since O’Hanlon accomplished the feat during her first season in 2015.

“Coming into this week we knew we had two big games. We hadn’t beaten Boston University since 2015 and it’s always a great game between us and Bucknell, who beat us by one in the last second (in the 2017 season), so these were two huge wins we wanted. After beating BU, we had great energy and were able to keep that going into Saturday against Bucknell,” O’Hanlon said.

After this week, the Raiders elevated their overall record to 8-3 and hope to continue their successful streak as they move forward into the rest of their season. Next week, the women’s lacrosse team will take on Lehigh University on Saturday, April 7, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

Contact Dana Monz at [email protected].