The Colgate women’s lacrosse team had an action-packed past two weekends, first traveling to Annapolis, Maryland to take on Navy on Saturday, March 17, before facing Holy Cross on Beyer-Small ’76 Field on Saturday, March 24. 

The Navy Midshipmen proved to be tough competition for the Colgate Raiders, who ended up falling by one goal, 13-12 in overtime. This was Colgate’s second straight overtime loss to a ranked team. 

The Raiders trailed the Midshipmen by one goal before senior attack player Kristen Brigagliano tied the game with 19:28 left in the second half. This goal opened up a four-goal streak in the span of 2:57, which put the Raiders ahead with 12-9 and 16:31 to go in the second half. This was followed by Navy’s Jenna Collins, who scored three of the final four goals for Navy, including the game-tying goal and the game-winning goal with just 16 seconds left in overtime. 

Following this loss, the Colgate Raiders took an early lead against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday, March 24. Sophomore attack player Payton Gabriel led all scorers with three points and scored a pair of goals, making her the only Raider to have a goal in all nine games this season. Sophomore midfielder Noelle Patterson also made two goals for the Raiders, and seven other players also scored during the game.

The Raiders scored in bunches during the first half of the game, and managed to take a five-goal lead in the second half. Keely Connors gave Holy Cross an initial 1-0 lead, which was followed by the Raiders scoring a pair of goals within 23 seconds, made by Gabriel and senior midfielder Natalie Washuta. Holy Cross tied the game with 21:24 left, which Colgate answered with another pair of goals from Patterson and junior attack player Tara Atkinson. 

Colgate extended its lead of 4-3 with three straight goals to close the first half. Brigagliano and Gabriel scored within one minute of each other, while first-year midfielder Natalie Gwynn closed the half with her eighth goal of the season. 

The first goal of the second half was made by first-year midfielder Olivia Duarte with 19:41 left in the period. The Crusaders followed with a pair of goals that were made within 37 seconds of each other. Another goal was added nearly four minutes later. Patterson scored the game-winning goal on a free-position shot with 6:51 left in the second half. 

The Crusaders followed with a pair of goals made within 35 seconds of each other, but the Raiders were able to successfully hold onto the win ending the game with a final score of 9-8. Sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Croston continued to impress, with eight saves, remaining one of the best goalkeepers in the Patriot League. 

“I’m really proud of the team for being able to come up with some pretty big plays when it counted. Kudos to Holy Cross, they had a great game plan. We were able to move the ball pretty well in the first half but they made some adjustments at halftime, which we weren’t able to adjust to that well,” head coach Heather Young said.

The Raiders will play again on Beyer-Small ’76 Field on Wednesday, where they will take on the Boston University Terriers at 5 p.m.      

Contact Daisy Krolik at [email protected].