MIDDLETOWN, CT – Despite a late scoring burst, Williams women's lacrosse fell 13-8 to Wesleyan today in both team's season opener.
Seven of Williams' eight goals came in the final fifteen minutes of the game. Lilly Wellenbach '15 and co-captain Margie Fulton '12 scored two goals apiece for Williams, while Wesleyan was led by Kylie Berger with six goals.
Williams outshot Wesleyan on the game, 30-27. Eph netminder Ali Piltch was credited with eight saves, while Wesleyan's Maggie Drowica stopped 11 of the Ephs' 19 shots on net.
The Cardinals controlled play throughout the first half, as an early goal from Wellenbach was the only Eph score of the first 30 minutes; meanwhile, Wesleyan was particularly in control in the face-off circle, where the Cardinals claimed all but one draw in the first half. Led by Berger, the Cardinals took advantage. They jumped out to a 7-1 lead before the break after scoring on a variety of free position shots and dives toward the crease, as Berger led the way with three first half goals.
Eph head coach Chris Mason was frustrated with her team's first half performance. "The start was OK defensively, but offensively we weren't handling the ball," she said. "Ali [Piltch] made some great saves to start the game, but we kept losing it on offense. [We were] jittery, is all I can say. They went on to gain confidence and we went on to lose it. We hit their keeper a little bit, but she did a good job. Ali held them off for a long time, but we were losing confidence."
Williams' offensive drought continued into the second half, and after two more Wesleyan goals, the Ephs found themselves behind 9-1 with less than 15 minutes to go. At that point, the team found found offensive footing. First, sparked by a goal from Weinstein with 14:14 to play, they were able score three unanswered goals before the 10 minute, making the score 9-4 with 10:51 to play. The Ephs and Cardinals then scored four goals apiece over the final 10 minutes, and the Cardinals walked off the field with a 13-8 victory.
"We finally started playing in the second half," Mason said. "I think we need to be more intense with each other in practice. I think we've been doing really well, but it seemed like a [step up] today. They were a very good team, very fast. They put a lot of pressure on us and never gave up. I felt like it wasn't because we weren't running hard or trying hard, but we weren't really believing we were going to win the ball back. We were kind of going through the motions in the first half. Somewhere in the second half it finall just clicked. You could see people start to play with more determination and confidence, and things started to turn around for us."
Williams will look to regroup this week before facing off with MIT on the road on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Wesleyan faces Hamilton tomorrow at 1 p.m.
