WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Lafayette women's lacrosse team and American fought in a battle of dominant halves on Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C., with the Eagles besting the Leopards with an 11-4 second stanza to win, 15-12.
The Leopards led by as many as five in the game at 7-2 with 8:17 to play in the opening half. However, American runs of six and three midway through the second shifted the game in favor of the home side to send Lafayette to its third straight Patriot League defeat.
A trio of Leopards posted hat tricks in the game as Carlianne McCabe, Charlotte Avallone and Kirsten Wilhelmsen each posted three goals apiece. Anna Raymond made nine saves between the pipes, but a healthy 39-24 edge in shots for the Eagles helped them beat Raymond 15 times.
Lafayette had troubles in the circle, dropping the draw control battle, 20-9. That setback gave American the chance at the comeback, simply from the standpoint of controlling possession.
The teams traded goals to open the game before six straight from the Maroon and White put them up 7-2 midway through the opening half. A pair from Jennifer DeSimone ended the string and cut the Leopards' edge to three at 7-4, but an unassisted tally from Wilhelmsen with less than a minute remaining took the game into the break at 8-4 in Lafayette's favor.
Kristin Schaen found the back of the net just 52 seconds into the second stanza, but it was all American from there. Six straight for the Eagles in less than 10 minutes erased the five-goal deficit and gave them their first lead since 2-1 at 10-9 with 16:29 to go.
Wilhelmsen finished a feed from Emma Novick to tie it at 10 with 14:47 remaining, but three more from American over the next five minutes put the momentum cleanly on the home side, up 13-10 with less than 10 minutes to play.
McCabe and Wilhelmsen netted goals 10 seconds apart with 7:23 and 7:13 to go to cut the edge to one at 13-12, but Shauna Norris and Olivia Mangan answered over the final six-minute stretch to push the game to the buzzer at 15-12.
Lafayette takes a break from conference play for its next contest on Monday, hosting Central Connecticut State at Fisher Stadium at 5 p.m.
