Moon Township, Pa. ? The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team suffered its third one goal loss of the season as the Bucknell Bison snubbed the Colonials' late rally in the second half and left Joe Walton Stadium with a 15-14 victory Sunday afternoon.
In a rematch of last year's thrilling finish where the Colonials (2-8, 1-2 NEC) defeated the Bison, 9-8, on a 20-yard shot from junior Jenn Collins (Edgewater, Md. / South River) as time expired, it almost appeared as history was going to repeat itself.
Trailing, 11-4, coming out of halftime, Robert Morris rallied with an offensive explosion in the second half. The Colonials, led by junior Ashley Levering (Glenwood, Md. / Glenelg) and sophomore Alana Beck (Carle Place, N.Y. / Old Dominion), outscored the Bison, 10-4, and closed within one with less than a minute to play. Levering notched six second-half assists to give the junior a team-leading 25 points on the season, while Beck scored a game-high four goals and added a helper to put her one point behind Levering at 24.
Junior Kara Blakeley (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine Richland) started the rally with back-to-back scores at 28:45 and 26:58 followed by a tally from Collins at the 26:07 mark. Both players finished the game with three goals each.
Bucknell stifled the momentum with a goal from Chelsea Peters, but Beck's first of the game on a free-position attempt at 20:15 would make the score, 12-7.
After another Bison score to push the deficit to seven, Robert Morris would start the rally with goals by junior Emily Tomlinson (Springfield, Va. / West Springfield) and Collins at 12:00 and 11:19 to pull within four at 13-9.
Bucknell would seal the game early though, scoring the game-winning goal as part of a set of scores just 11 seconds apart at 8:05 and 7:54. Beck would lead the team within one over the last five minutes with three goals and an assist. However, the Bucknell defense would spoil the Colonials repeating history as the Bison took away any chances of a last second shot with the ball in their end and time running out.
Robert Morris went neck-and-neck with Bucknell through the first 12 minutes of the game. Junior Jillian Howley (East Northport, N.Y. / Northport) led the Colonials to a 4-3 advantage with two free-position goals along with Blakeley and sophomore Ali Gibbons (Candia, N.H. / Manchester) getting into the action. The Bison, however, would answer back with eight straight goals to take an 11-4 advantage into halftime.
The Colonials outshot the Bison, 33-28, but the deciding factor proved to be the net-minding play of Bucknell's Alyssa DeLorenz, who finished the game with 14 saves. Sophomore Erica Webb (Arnold, Md. / Broadneck) stopped nine shots while senior Lauren Hartsfield (Cumming, Ga. / South Forsyth) wrapped up the final 5:01 facing no shots.
Robert Morris looks to snap its two game losing skid when the Colonials travel to Connecticut on Friday, April 4 to face Quinnipiac in a Northeast Conference showdown. Game time is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
