Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team took the field with hopes to even its conference record in the first weekend of Northeast Conference action as the Colonials hosted Central Connecticut State on Sunday. After hanging with the Blue Devils for the first half, RMU faltered in the second as the Blue Devils came away with a 14-7 victory despite four points from sophomore Kristin Yoviene.
Central Connecticut State would score the first two goals of the contest in the first six minutes as the Blue Devils would jump out to an early 2-0 lead. Robert Morris would have a response as the Colonials would net two goals of their own to tie the score. The first goal of the game for RMU came from junior Emily VanDyne (Webster, N.Y. / Webster Thomas) as she capitalized on a pass from Kristin Yoviene (Easton Md. / Saints Peter and Paul). Less than a minute later, Yoviene would tie the game with a free-position goal for her second point in the contest.
After evening the score, Robert Morris would allow three consecutive goals to CCSU as the Blue Devils would hold the advantage with less than thirteen minutes remaining in the first half. RMU would stop the run by Central Connecticut State when Yoviene scored her second goal of the game.
The Blue Devils would answer Yoviene's goal with their sixth of the half as there was just three minutes remaining in the first. Robert Morris would close out the scoring in the half with two goals in the final two minutes to cut the deficit to a single goal.  Freshman Emily Jamison (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Hills) would first score on a free-position shot with 90 seconds left to bring the Colonials to within two goals. Fellow freshman Brittany Byerly (Wexford, Pa. / Pine-Richland) scored with 28 seconds remaining off of a feed from Yoviene to make the score 6-5 after the first half of play.
After picking up a yellow card in the first half, Robert Morris would lose its dependable draw-control specialist when freshman Jessica Karwacki (Sparks, Md. / Hereford) was given a second yellow card with 25 minutes remaining in the second half. Before exiting the game, Karwacki had won ten of the thirteen draw controls taken. Over nine minutes would elapse before a goal was scored as Central Connecticut State netted two goals just thirty seconds apart to take a three-goal lead. It would take Byerly just 33 seconds to answer with her second goal of the game, this one coming after she was awarded a free-position attempt ten minutes in to the half.
The Blue Devils would regain their three-goal lead with a ninth goal midway through the half. Junior Talia Waskowicz (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) would net the seventh goal for Robert Morris and just the second of the half as she capitalized on a free-position shot with thirteen minutes remaining.
In a span of five minutes during the second half, Robert Morris would allow five goals while losing two more players who accumulated two yellow cards during the match. Junior Lauren Roberts (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C.W. Baker) was given a yellow card twice in a span of 3:41 after the Blue Devils scored twice to break the game open. Shortly after Roberts was sent off, Yoviene was given her first of two cards as her second card came just 3:26 after she was first sent off. With the final five goals, Central Connecticut State would win the contest, 14-7, as the Colonials were issued seven yellow cards in the match.
Junior goaltender Kaitlin Pentz (Sykesville, Md. / Century) would finish the contest making six saves as her record, currently 4-5, fell below .500 for the first time this season. In the contest, Robert Morris would never hold the lead and only tied the score once which occurred in the first ten minutes of the game. After losing Karwacki – who has won a program record 79 draw controls this season and has five games in which she registered at least ten draw control victories- to two yellow cards, the Colonials won only three of the ten draw controls taken in the second half. In the nine games this season, Jamison has averaged 2.44 goals, the fourth highest average in a single season and the highest since Waskowicz averaged 2.53 goals per game in the 2012 season.
Robert Morris will take to the road next week with its first two Northeast Conference road contests of the season. The Colonials will spend next weekend in New York City as they take on LIU-Brooklyn Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. before facing off against Wagner on Saturday at Noon.
