TROY, NY - Williams women's lacrosse suffered a 13-12 defeat at the hands of RPI this evening on the road. The women fell to 4-7 on the season, while RPI improved to 10-0. It was the Ephs' first out-of-league defeat.
The game was a tale of two halves, as Williams led 7-4 after the first 30 minutes.
"We played a pretty good first half, and the mental errors killed us in the second half unfortunately," said Williams head coach Chris Mason.
Kaitlin Ellis led Williams with a season-high four goals in the game. Engineer Shannon Maguire was the game's high-scorer with five goals.
Ali Piltch had nine saves for the Ephs, and Allie Arnal stopped eight shots for the Engineers.
It seemed the game would be tight from the beginning of the contest, as the first 10 minutes of saw the two teams trade goals four times. However, it appeared as though Williams might have taken control of the game in the final minutes of the first half. After a goal from Sam Weinstein with 13:20 to play that made the score 5-4 in favor of Williams, there was a long lull in the scoring before Lilly Wellenbach scored with 3:33 to play to make the score 6-4 Williams, and Emily Jablonski put the Ephs up 7-4 headed into half time off a solo effort with 1:03 remaining in the half.
The Ephs maintained control through the early going of the second 30 minutes. The women scored first when Emily Whicker received a pass from Wellenbach and zipped a shot past Arnal on a man-up opportunity only 1:21 into the half. Each team then scored three goals apiece over the following 10 minutes, and the Ephs found themselves up 10-6 with 18:48 to play after Jablonski scored on a free position shot.
Jablonski's goal forced an RPI time out. Coming out of the stoppage, the Engineers turned up their intensity, scoring four unanswered goals over the following nine minutes to knot up the game at 10-10. Ellis stopped the run when she beat Arnal on an unassisted shot with 9:12 to play. Two goals from Maguire then saw the home team take its first lead of the game with 4:47 to play. Ellis brought the Ephs back even with an unassisted effort directly following the ensuing draw with 4:37 to play. However, the Ephs' efforts ultimately fell short, as RPI scored off a free position shot with 3:54 remaining in the game to make the score 13-12, and Williams was unable to score in the game's closing moments.
"There were a hand-full of draw controls we got our stick on and didn't come up with it," said Mason, discussing the challenges the Ephs had in the second half. "We had to play a little bit more defense in the second half, and they were good ball handlers and quick, and they did a good job against us. One of things we were trying to emphasize was to get the double teams in the defensive end when you had the opportunity to … We were doing that better, unfortunately, it got out of control where people were jumping to doubles in situations where they couldn't afford to leave their player, and that player would be free and get right in front of goal open. We tended to be a little bit impatient on offense at times, and sometimes we forgot to fake. We did a really great job against their goalkeeper, who has a 60 percent save percentage on the season, in the first half, and didn't do as good in the second half. She played better, but we put a few right at her stick and let her get going a little."
Even in the defeat, Mason found positives for the team to build on ahead this weekend's NESCAC contest with Colby. "I think we worked harder [defensively], moving our feet and double teaming and pressuring," she said. "Offensively, we did better providing support, and we had good sharp passing. It got a little better, and we need to get a little better than that."
Williams next faces the Mules at 12 p.m. on the road on Saturday in a NESCAC battle. RPI's next game will be against William Smith at home on Friday at 4 p.m.
