Amanda O’Sullivan scored four goals for the Colgate Raiders en route to a 19-7 win over Bucknell in its Patriot League opener. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
By Matt Faulkner
(Hamilton, NY – March 9, 2013) After a close opening 30 minutes, the Colgate women’s lacrosse team outscored Bucknell, 12-1, in the second half and cruised to a 19-7 win over the Bison in the Patriot League opener for both squads.
Colgate (3-3, 1-0 PL) scored a season-high 19 goals with eight different goal scorers. Alison Flood led the way with five goals and Amanda O’Sullivan added four tallies. Kate Sheridan had the highest point total with six points on two goals and four assists, while Brooke Flanagan recorded a career-high four points on two goals and two assists.
Jennie Berglin made eight stops to earn her third win. Six of the eight saves came in the first half. She also had a game-high three caused turnovers and three ground balls. Kristen Norden recorded the most ground balls with four and Flood had a team-high six draws.
Bucknell (0-6, 0-1 PL) hung tough with Colgate in the first half with Ryan Wenk scoring all three of her tallies in the opening period. Madison Hurwitz had two helpers and Sam Rickel had two points. Caroline O’Neill made six saves in the loss for the Bison.
The Bison was able to earn a 2-1 lead in the first nine minutes with Claire Switala and Wenk tallying goals around Colgate’s first score from Flood, which was her first of five on the day. The Raiders then went on a stretch of three-straight goals over a span of 1:47 to earn a 4-2 lead. O’Sullivan got on the board and Lauren Gorajek scored her 11th goal of the year. Flood ended the run with her second of the day with 16:33 left in the first.
Wenk helped the visitors knot the score with back-to-back goals to tie the game at 4-4 with 6:04 remaining in the opening half. The teams traded goals over the final six minutes with Sheridan and Monica White netting their first goals of the afternoon. The Raiders were able to take a slim 7-6 lead into the locker room.
Colgate came out of the locker room and scored three of the first four goals in the opening 10 minutes to build an 11-7 lead. Flanagan scored two of the four, while Flood and Sheridan added the others.
The Raiders gave up the final Bison goal with just under 26 minutes remaining in the game and ended up scoring the final 11 goals en route to a 19-7 win. Flood led the way with three goals, while O’Sullivan had two. Kallan Murray tallied the first two of her career late in the game and Quincey Spagnoletti got on the score sheet for the first time this season with a free-position goal with 42 seconds left. Murray ended the game with her second of the game with one tic remaining to close out the scoring and the Raiders got the 19-7 win.
Colgate was outshot in the first 30 minutes, but fired back with a 15-3 advantage in the second half to finish the day with 27 shots to 17 for the Bison. Draw controls were big as the Raiders controlled 18-of-31.
The Raiders will now head to Pennsylvania for spring break games at Drexel on Wednesday and Lehigh on Saturday afternoon.