Brooklyn, N.Y. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team fell to the Long Island University Blackbirds, 13-12, in a triple-overtime Northeast Conference thriller Thursday night in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Junior Brittanny Smith (Owen Sound, Ont. / West Hill Secondary) led the Colonials (5-7, 2-2 NEC) with a career-high five assists while Sophomore Jillian Howley (East Northport, N.Y. / Northport) tallied a hat-trick.
Junior Pam Deguffroy (Irwin, Pa. / Norwin), Sophomore Jenn Collins (Edgewater, Md. / South River) and Sophomore Kara Blakeley (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine Richland) each scored two goals a piece while Sophomore Ashley Levering (Glenwood, Md. / Glenelg) and Sophomore Emily Tomlinson (Springfield, Va. / West Springfield) picked up a goal and an assist. Junior Bethany Mahaffey (Edgewater, Md. / Annapolis Area Christian) rounded out the scoring with a goal.
Trailing, 6-5, at halftime, the Colonials rallied to over come a four-goal deficit in the second half. Long Island started the second frame with a Kelly Bantancur goal at 26:57 to extend their lead to 7-5. RMU would counter 39 second later with a Mahaffey score to keep the deficit within one.
Long Island seemed as if they had the game in control as the duo of Amy Rizzo and Jackie McCormick produced the next three goals for the Blackbirds to give them their largest lead of the night, 10-6, with 17:38 left to play. Rizzo finished the game with six goals while McCormick tallied three.
As the clock approached the 17 minute mark, the Colonials started to mount their comeback. RMU outscored the Blackbirds, 6-2, from that point with goals by Howley, Blakeley and Deguffroy less than a minute apart. LIU burned a timeout in hopes of stifling the reemergence of the RMU offense.
After the break, Long Island managed to push their lead back to two with Rizzo's sixth goal of the game at 13:59, but the momentum of the Colonials was too much to silence. Howley and Blakeley quickly erased the Blackbirds lead with back-to-back free position goals at 12:53 and 8:49 setting up Robert Morris to take their only lead of the game, 12-11, at 4:55 when Collins picked up her second goal off of a Smith. The lead was short-lived though as LIU's Kristen Scheerer scored her only goal of the game at 2:05 to tie the game and force both teams into an extra-time situation.
After two unsuccessful overtime sessions with each team taking one-shot, the Blackbirds managed to bring down the curtain as Kristine Wienckowski tallied her second goal of the game, 1:42, into the third overtime en route to Long Island's first NEC victory of the season.
Freshman Erica Webb (Arnold, Md. / Broadneck) made a career-high 13 saves in goal for Robert Morris.
For the game, Robert Morris out-shot Long Island, 32-31, while also holding the advantage in ground balls, 25-24, and in draw controls, 15-14.
The women's lacrosse team heads to West Long Branch, N.J. on Saturday, April 7, to take on the first place team in the Northeast Conference in Monmouth University. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.
