On Saturday, the Colgate field hockey team fell to Bryant, losing by a score of 2-1. The team’s record falls to 3-7, while Bryant won their first contest of the season, improving to 1-7. The match was played at home on Tyler’s Field.

The first goal of the game was netted 12 minutes into the first half when senior Laura Denenga scored her seventh of the season. Denenga currently leads the Raiders in goals scored. This was the only lead that Colgate would see throughout the game.

Another dozen minutes later, the Bulldogs responded with a goal of their own, evening the score at one. Bryant then took the lead six minutes later with a 2-1 advantage and would not relinquish that lead for the rest of the game.

The second half of the game saw much stronger offense from Colgate as they sought to wrest the lead from Bryant.

Despite a series of corners and a quick succession of moves on the goal by Colgate during the last five minutes of the game, the score held and Bryant claimed the victory. The team’s aggressive play is clearly reflected in the shot totals, as Colgate outshot Bryant 19-10 and led 14-1 in penalty corners. Senior captain and goalkeeper Kirsten Lalli had five saves throughout the game. The Bulldog goalie, Jennifer Gullotti, saved nine.

“Laura [Denenga] has been playing midfield lately and has been working well on the side,” Lalli said of her teammate’s contributions on offense. “She’s our leading goal-scorer and I think she leads the league in shots as well, so she’s been a valuable asset to our offense.”

This coming weekend, the team will travel to Easton, Pennsylvania to take on Lafayette, in their first Patriot League match of the season.

In looking forward to interleague play, Lalli was positive, anticipating a tough match.

“League play gives us a sort of clean slate because non-conference records don’t matter with respect to making it to our league’s playoff tournament,” Lalli said. “Lafayette has a solid team so we’re going to need to keep focus and play 70 minutes of good hockey to stay competitive.”

Lafayette is currently 2-5. Both teams lost to Quinnipiac earlier in the season, indicating a relatively equal level of play between the teams and the potential for an exciting match on Saturday.