WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - In a tale of two halves, Williams women's lacrosse fell to Bates this afternoon 11-10 in a hard-fought contest. The Ephs led 7-4 heading into the break, but were unable to overcome a strong second half from Bates, which outscored Williams 7-3 while outshooting the Ephs 14-7 and winning seven of 11 draws in the second 30 minutes.
Williams head coach Chris Mason was disappointed with the loss. "It's frustrating because we played such a good first half, but to start the second half weren't as intense and weren't as conscientious about the basics with ball handling," she said. We had lapses in the first half with ball handling basics, but we were able to correct them and focus. We didn't do that in the second half. We have to remember that poossessin is the most important thing... We just didn't handle the ball and they were more determined. Our footwork also has to be better defensively. It can kill us if we don't keep it going all the time."
Williams now sits at 3-4 on the season and 0-4 in the NESCAC, while Bates improved to 4-4 on the season and 2-4 in the NESCAC.
The Bobcats were led by Joan O'Neil, who scored three goals and had four assists. She became Bates' all time leading point scorer on the game: Her seven points gave her 187 for her career, breaking the record of 182, held by Molly Wagner, who graduated in 2008.
Eight different Ephs scored in the game. Sam Weinstein spearheaded the Ephs' offensive effort with two goals and two assists.
Bates goalie Eloise O'Connor had seven saves on the game, and Williams netminder Ali Piltch had six.
The Ephs looked to be in good shape as the game began. Although Bates scored on its first possession when O'Neil found Jenna Daniels streaking from left to right, Williams quickly went up 3-1 on goals from Emily Whicker, Weinstein and Lilly Wellenbach. In a repeat of the first goal, Daniels scored moving left to right on an assist from O'Neil to make the score 3-2 with 21:03 to play in the half, but Williams answered with force, as a goal from Emily Jablonski and a goal on a free position shot from Rebecca McGovern made the score 5-2 in favor of the Ephs with 17:49 to play.
The game then saw a lull in the scoring until the 12:42 mark. At that point, O'Neil received a pass moving right to left across the face of the goal and quick-sticked a shot past Piltch to break the Bates points record and make the score 5-3.
Bates scored again with 10:52 to play before another lull in the scoring. The Ephs appeared to be in trouble when they went a man down with 10 minutes to play on a yellow card for Jablonski, but the defense held firm. With 4:40 to play, Weinstein found tri-captain Meera Sivalingam on the top of the crease; Silvalingam flung the ball past O'Connor as she fell going to her right to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Ephs. The first half scoring was then capped on a goal from Weinstein coming around the goal off a forced turnover with 39 seconds left. The goal pushed the Ephs' lead to 7-4 headed into the break.
Bates came out of half time with force: The Bobcats held Williams to one shot and scored five unanswered goals in the first 15 minutes of the half to take a 9-7 lead. Bates' run was capped by another quick stick from O'Neil with 16:52 to play. Williams found its feet following O'Neil's goal, ripping off three unanswered goals of their own. The first came off a spin from right to let from tri-captain Margie Fulton that made the score 9-8 with 14:52 to play. The Ephs retied the game with 8:24 to play when Taylor Fleishhacker received a pass from McGovern and was shoved, but flipped the ball behind her head and past O'Connell. On the ensuing man-up opportunity, the Ephs retook the lead on a solo effort from Katie Ellis with 7:35 to play.
However, the Ephs 10-9 lead proved not to be enough. O'Neil scored an unassisted goal with 2:12 to play to retie the game. After the Bobcats won the following draw, they held the ball until there were 42 seconds remaining; Jenna Dannis then beat her defender to go 1-on-1 with Piltch and scored on a bounce shot to give the Bobcats the victory.
"The coaches can't be in everyone's head, to remember, go to the ball," said Mason. "You have to do the basic things right enough times that it becomes a habit. The draws were killing in the second half as well. We gave them too many chances. We just weren't as determined on loose balls in the second half as we were in the first half.
"We're so close to being as good as anybody. I can feel it," she added. "It doesn't feel good to lose, but we are almost there."
Williams takes on Bowdoin tomorrow at 1 p.m. at home. Bates travels to Wellesly to play tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
