BUFFALO, N.Y. – Feb. 29, 2012 – Freshman Kristin Yoviene scored the first four goals of her career and senior Colleen O'Donnell tallied her 10th career hat trick as the Robert Morris women's lacrosse team fell to Canisius 11-10 on Wednesday afternoon.

After the Golden Griffins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first half, the Colonials (1-2 overall, 0-0 NEC) rebounded with a pair of goals from sophomore Talia Waskowicz (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) to cut the deficit to one. The two goals against Canisius pushed Waskowicz's season total to eight – the second most goals in the Northeast Conference this season.

Behind the sophomore's quick start, the Colonials would rally and keep the score within three goals for the rest of the afternoon. Yoviene (Easton, Md. / Saints Peter and Paul) tallied the first goal of her career off a free-position shot at 8:35 of the first half and would strike once more in the half – again with a free-position shot – just under six minutes later. O'Donnell (Portland, Ore. / St. Mary's Academy) added her first of three goals for the day when she found the net with 15 seconds remaining in the half to send the game into the break with Robert Morris down 6-5. O'Donnell would finish the afternoon with a game high five points – recording a pair of assists in addition to the hat trick.

After Canisius (1-0, 0-0 MAAC) tallied a pair of goals to start the second half, Yoviene and O'Donnell rebounded to again cut the deficit to a lone tally with goals less than a minute apart – at 17:09 and 16:23 of the half, respectively – to make it a 7-8 game. The two teams would trade five more goals over the next 13 minutes before RMU's senior Courtney Sicinski (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown West) would tally the game's final goal – bringing the score to 11-10 with 3:14 to play. The Colonials, who were outshot 23-27 overall, controlled the ball for most of the game's final two minutes and put two scoring chances on net but couldn't find the equalizer as a final clear attempt by the Golden Griffins was successful and time expired.

Sophomore goaltender Kaitlin Pentz (Sykesville, Md. / Century) took the loss for Robert Morris in a six-save performance while Gina Molfetta made 10 saves to pick up the win for Canisius. Yoviene posted game-highs for shots (nine) and shots on goal (eight) while senior Emily Carlo (Cranberry Township, Pa. / Seneca Valley) led the Colonials with four caused turnovers and four ground balls.

Robert Morris returns to action on Saturday, March 3 at Lehigh.  Start time for that game is 1:00 p.m. ET.

-RMU-