By Matt Faulkner
(Hamilton, NY – April 20, 2013) The Colgate women’s lacrosse team celebrated its seven seniors on Saturday, but Lafayette held onto a late lead to defeat the Raiders, 9-7, and with the loss Colgate saw its season come to an end.
The day started with a win and you’re in mentality for both teams as the two were fighting for the final spot in the Patriot League Tournament. With the win, the Leopards earned that final spot and will play for the title next week.
The Raiders (7-8, 2-4 PL) were led by senior Amanda O’Sullivan as she had two goals, while Lauren Gorajek tallied a team-high three points on a goal and two helpers. Overall Colgate had six different goal scorers.
Jennie Berglin did her best in net with six stops, including a few in the second half to keep the Raiders to within striking distance. She also had a caused turnover. M.J. Smith had a good defensive day in her final Colgate contest with three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
The Leopards (9-7, 3-3 PL) can thank Ana White for the victory today as she had two goals and an assist, but had a huge impact on draw controls. She picked up eight on the day out of the 12 won by Lafayette and won four in a row at one point, which severely hampered Colgate’s chances for a comeback.
Laura Kleiber had a great day as well with three goals, four ground balls and a game-high four caused turnovers. Meghan Curtin got the call in the cage and made six stops to earn her sixth win of the season.
The first half featured little offense until the final minutes after Lafayette had a 2-0 lead until the Raiders scored with 5:24 left in the opening half. Kleiber and Jessica Rothstein netted the first two goals for the Leopards and then Colgate answered with three-straight goals in a two-minute span to take its first lead at 3-2 with 3:28 remaining.
Kate Sheridan made a nice move from behind the cage and got it over the outstretched stick of Curtin to put the Raiders on the board. O’Sullivan knotted the game with a free-position goal for her team-leading 34th of the season. O’Sullivan’s tally came 14 seconds after Sheridan’s score.
Emily Peebles and Gorajek then hooked up on a fast-break style goal on a long clearing attempt. Berglin hit Gorajek in the middle of the field with a long pass and then Gorajek spotted Peebles for the score to gain Colgate’s first lead with 3:28 left in the half. However, that was the last lead for the Raiders in the match with the Leopards tallying the final two goals of the half in the last minute of play to take a 4-3 lead into the break.
In the second half, the Leopards had an answer for the Raiders on each goal. For every score Colgate put on the board, the Leopards fired back with two.
Alison Flood tied the game at 4-4 at the 26:52 mark with an unassisted tally, but Kleiber put the visitors up 6-4 with back-to-back scores in a span of 27 seconds and with 24:31 left, she helped the Leopards to their largest lead up to that point.
Gorajek tried to reignite her team with her lone goal of the day and second point with 23:23 left to get Colgate to within one at 6-5. But the story continued as White and Katie Leto fired back to give Lafayette its biggest lead at 8-5, which turned out to be a back-breaker for the Raiders.
The teams exchanged goals in the final 16 minutes with O’Sullivan and Jenna Frost scoring for Colgate, while Addie Godfrey got on the board for the Leopards. Frost’s tally came with 8:44 left and put the Raiders within two goals, but Lafayette was able to run out the clock and earn the 9-7 win.
Colgate had some bad luck throughout the match with three shots hitting the post, including two from O’Sullivan. The Raiders did have the shooting edge at 24-18, but lost the shots on goal battle at 15-13 in favor of Lafayette. The teams played evenly on the stat sheet, but a 12-6 advantage for the Leopards in draws was a difference make, as well as six failed clears by Colgate.
The Raiders honored its seven seniors prior to the game. O’Sullivan, Smith, Sheridan, Beasley Hays, Brooke Flanagan, Kelly Mason and Quincey Spagnoletti played all four years for the Raiders and made three conference tournaments with one visit to the title game in 2011.