BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Lafayette women's lacrosse team couldn't come back from a big first-half deficit on Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn, New York, falling to LIU-Brooklyn by a final of 14-9 in an out-of-conference matchup.

The Leopards could not get going throughout the opening 30 minutes, trailing by an 11-3 score at the halftime break. They came out of the locker room with a purpose, though, scoring four goals in the first five minutes of the second stanza to cut the lead to four, 11-7.

Unfortunately, that was as close as Lafayette could make it as the two teams traded tallies over the final 24 minutes and the Blackbirds closed it out. The loss drops the Leopards to 5-7 overall, while LIU-Brooklyn improves to 3-7.  

Senior co-captain Emma Novick tallied a hat trick to lead the Maroon and White offensively with three goals on the day. Classmate Hannah Davey was the only other multi-goal scorer with a pair, and sophomore Colleen Bannon added a goal and an assist for a pair of points.

The Blackbirds' Sam Kidd was impressive between the pipes, allowing just nine goals and making 15 saves. Lafayette's Quinn Lacy gave up 11 goals compared to four saves for her seventh defeat, while Taylor Danson saw 10:21 of action, recording one save.

Shots finished at 34-27 in favor of the Maroon and White and Lafayette won the ground-ball battle, 13-11. The Leopards forced 16 turnovers and committed just 13, and held a 14-9 advantage in the circle, led by nine draws from freshman Caroline Curnal.

The Leopards return to Patriot League action this weekend, tripping to West Point, New York for a tilt with Army on Saturday at 3 p.m.