On Sunday, February 27, Colgate women’s lacrosse competed against Vermont to earn its second win of the season with an overall score of 20-14. Senior midfielder Colleen Bubnack, led the team to victory with a career-high nine points on the score sheet with six goals and three assists. Junior goalie Christina Roa played all 60 minutes of the game and was able to stop eight shots to cinch the win for the Raiders.

Vermont (0-2) was the first to score just two minutes into the game. Colgate’s (2-1) at­tack countered with two consecutive goals from Sullivan and Bubnack, raising the score to 2-1 with 25:23 left in the first half. The Catamounts fired back with back-to-back free position goals and had a 3-2 lead over the Raiders. Vermont received a yellow card, causing the team to be down a player. At 15:20, first-year midfielder Ali­son Flood took this to her advantage and scored her first goal of the game.

Bubnack regained the lead with her second goal of the game with 12:43 left in the half. The assist was credited to Senior Kate Bergstrom. The Catamounts tied up the game scoring off of yet another free-position shot to round the score out to 5-5. Colgate rushed ahead with two-straight goals in the final minute of the half. Sullivan scored with just 18 seconds left in the half, fol­lowed by Bergstrom who received a pass from O’Sullivan to crush her second goal of the day with two seconds left on the clock. The Raid­ers headed into the locker room with a 7-5 lead over Vermont.

As the second half began, a Colgate player was sent to the sidelines due to a yellow card. The setback did not phase Bubnack, who came up with a quick goal after the penalty. Vermont countered with two unassisted goals in the first five minutes of play, bringing the score to 8-7. Bubnack answered with her fourth tally of the day with 24:23 left in of play. Three minutes lat­er, sophomore attacker, Brooke Flanagan, scored her first point of the season to raise the score to 10-7.

Vermont posted another tally, followed by a strong run from the Raiders. Colgate scored four straight goals to open up the lead to 14-8. The goals were scored by Bubnack, O’Sullivan and Flood as well as first-year Monica White who was credited with her second goal of the season. Still, Vermont had not yet disappeared and cut into the Raider’s lead with four of the next five scores, lowering Colgate’s advantage to only three. Dur­ing Vermont’s siege, Sullivan scored the lone tally for the Raiders.

Colgate finished the game strong in the last 11 minutes of play, outscoring the Catamounts 5-2. Sullivan had two of the goals in the final minutes while sophomore midfielder Quincey Spagnoletti scored her second of the season. The Raiders earned their second win, with a final score of 20-14.

Amanda O’Sullivan made a huge impact for the team with two goals, three assists, a ground ball and one caused turnover.

“We are a very strong offensive team.” O’Sullivan said. “The incoming freshman have made a nice impact; they are all contributing and working hard. By evidence of the number of girls that were able to score in the Vermont game, we’re very strong on the offensive side of the ball and can control the tempo of the game. As long as we’re patient and make smart decisions, we should be able to find the back of the net quite frequently in 2011.”

The Raiders were tremendously successful on the offense taking chances on as many smart opportunities as possible. Colgate out-shot the Catamounts by a 45-34 margin. On the defen­sive end, the Raiders led in ground balls with 22 compared to Vermont’s 20. Greer Goebels, Kailey Krause, Flood and Miller all tallied three ground balls apiece. Vermont led in draw con­trols 19-16; Miller was noteworthy taking away five draw controls of her own, followed by Mon­ica White who had four. Seven of Vermont’s 14 goals came from free-position shots as Colgate had 27 fouls on the day. Senior midfielder Missy Giusti took three turnovers, while Miller had two of her own.

“In the Vermont game, we had a balanced scoring attack on offense where a number of my teammates we able to go to goal., O’Sullivan said. Eight different players scored, which says we played cohesively together as a team. The defense played a very strong game as well. They were led by Kailey Krause, who was a tenacious and aggressive player within all of the defensive activity. As usual, Christina Roa proved to be highly dependable in goal.”

On Tuesday the Raiders will be on the road in Ithaca, NewYork.

“Cornell is always a tight game for us, it’s an­other great upstate NY rivalry,” O’Sullivan stated.

“They’re always well-coached and come pre­pared to play. We will continue to focus on what we are doing well and reinforce it as well as work on the areas that we need to improve on. Out­side of that, we are just going to play our game and let it come to us. If we come prepared and execute the things that the coaches taught us, we will be just fine against Cornell.”

The game will beginat 4 p.m. in Ithaca, N.Y.