Last Friday, the Colgate women’s lacrosse team lost to University of Vermont, with a final score of 18-12.

Senior midfielder and captain Court­ney Miller led the team with a whopping five points on four goals and one assist. Junior Quincey Spagnoletti and sopho­more Alison Flood, both midfielders, netted two goals apiece. Senior Captain and goalie Christina Roa started in the game and made an overall of five saves, while first year Jenna Berglin closed out the game with 19 minutes of playing time and three additional saves.

The Catamounts (1-0) opened their season on this snowy Friday afternoon with their first ever game on Virtue Field. Samantha Stern played a key role in the success of Vermont’s offense with 11 points on five goals and six assists. An­other notable player, Sydney Mas, posted five goals on the scoreboard and goalie Laura Barber made ten crucial saves to cinch the win for University of Vermont.

Vermont stormed the field ready to play and took an easy 6-1 lead in the first nine minutes of play. Sophomore attacker Monica White scored Colgate’s lone goal. With 19:40 remaining in the first half, Flood put Colgate back on the board, but Vermont countered with three-straight to bring the score to 9-2 with under 14 minutes left to play in the half.

In the next six minutes of play, the Raiders’ offense broke through Vermont’s dominating stronghold with four con­secutive goals: two from Miller and one apiece from juniors Amanda O’Sullivan and Kate Sheridan. Vermont then took back possession with three goals of their own to retake their six-goal lead of 12-6 to close out the half.

At the start of the second half, the Colgate women’s lacrosse team came out fired up and ready to put up a fight. Miller, Spagnoletti and Flood netted one goal each. Vermont regained momentum with three goals with just under fifteen minutes left to play. Miller put her fourth goal in the back of the net. Spagnoletti and first-year defenseman Jenna Frost scored to leave Colgate just three goals behind with 7:36 minutes left to play.

Vermont closed the game with three additional goals, which left the final score at 18-12 and provided the Catamounts a victorious season home opener.

Vermont led the scoresheet in shot advantage at 35-28 and draw controls at 19-13 over the Raiders. Courtney Miller led the team with six draw controls, while Monica White posted two of her own. Notable defenseman of the game Jenna Frost led the team with seven ground balls and three caused turnovers.

“Nobody wants a losing record,” cap­tain Courtney Miller said. “So ten games from now, I see us with an above .500 record. We have worked too hard in the off-season to not be successful right now.”

The team most likely stands to face an up-hill battle this season after the gradu­ation of three incredible players: Kate Bergstrom on attack, Colleen Bubnack in the midfield and Missy Guisti on de­fense. The gaps will be difficult to fill in, but the team has high hopes for their ca­pability and hopes to go on to win the Patriot League Championship and com­pete in the NCAA tournament. How­ever, the team is back to basics at this moment in time.

“We are working on the little things that we need to be a great team,” Miller said. “Minimizing dropped balls, un-caused turnovers and straight up hustle. Right now we are good – we are all on the same page, our winning season begins now and the only way you can win games is by connecting as individuals and being a unified cohesive team.”

The season continues as the Colgate Raiders take on Drexel at 1 p.m. on Ty­ler’s Field this coming Saturday.

Contact Allie Silverman at [email protected].