Saturday March 31, a gray afternoon in Hamilton, N.Y., the Colgate women’s lacrosse team took on the Yale Bulldogs to earn their third win of the season in a 16-12 game.

Senior captain and midfielder Court-ney Miller and sophomore midfielder Ali-son Flood both scored a tremendous five goals for the Raiders. Senior captain and attacker Katie Sullivan led the team with a game-high seven points on four goals and three assists.

Colgate, now carrying a 3-8 record, came out with energy in the opening min-utes of the game. Miller, Sullivan, Flood and junior midfielder Quincey Spagno-letti all tallied goals for the Raiders. The Bulldogs put two in the back of the net as well, and after 17 minutes of play, the scoreboard lit up 4-2. The Bulldogs coun-tered the Raiders’ strong offense with a third goal with under nine minutes left in the first half. Goals from the dominat-ing duo of Miller and Flood brought the score to 6-3. Yale answered back with two more goals, but Flood was able to cement the strength of Colgate’s offense with two consecutive goals with just under two minutes left to play.

A mere 12 seconds into the second half, the Bulldogs scored off their first possession through a draw control and a straight shot sprint to the goal. Colgate’s lead was cut to 8-6. The Raiders answered with three consecutive goals from sopho-more attacker Monica White, Flood and Miller to gain their highest lead at 11-6.

Colgate’s offense came to a standstill for the next portion of playtime, while Yale sliced into the home team’s advantage with three consecutive goals. The teams then traded a pair of goals to bring the score to 13-11. With 7:27 left in play, Colgate took control of the game down the stretch. Sul-livan increased the women’s lead with a hat trick, while the Bulldogs only found the back of the net a single time. First-year goal-ie Jennie Berglin earned her third win of the season with ten stops on the game.

“Communication on the defensive end is extremely important,” Berglin said. “I yell out where the ball is so that the defense is always aware of it. Additionally all of the defenders do an awesome job at communi-cating by talking through picks and making sure they are sliding to help when a girl is driving to the cage.”

In addition to Berglin’s work in goal, ju-nior defender Beasley Hayes had an incredible game with four ground balls and five of the 18 total caused turnovers to earn the title of Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week.

“I am really excited about the award, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of my teammates. I am really proud that my hard work is paying off,” Hayes said. “Our defense is a very cohesive unit, and everyone came together in the game against Yale. We had good communication and worked hard to dictate rather than respond to what Yale was doing.”

The 16 goals were the second most scored by Colgate this season. The team’s key play-er, Flood, recorded her career-high of the season with five goals.

“I think our offense was so successful against Yale because we spent the entire week working on our offensive possessions,” Flood said. “We are working on valuing hav-ing the ball in our sticks, being patient and waiting for the second and third options on our plays. I also think we are starting to mesh as an offensive unit which allows us to be more creative and effective.”

“To prepare for Navy, we are imitat-ing what they do on attack and defense so that we know what to expect when we play them,” Berglin said. “Personally, I am work-ing on saving the types of shots that Navy likes to take.”

Colgate faces 2011’s Patriot League Champions and rivals, Navy, at noon on Tyler’s Field this coming Saturday.

Contact Allie Silverman at [email protected].