PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team stayed perfect on the 2021 campaign Tuesday with a 18-13 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs at Joe Walton Stadium.
Graduate attack Mackenzie Gandy became the program's all-time leading scorer with her 180th career point, a free-position goal in the first half of the victory over FSU. She finished the afternoon with six points in total as the Colonials improve to 2-0 on the season.
"It's a little bittersweet," Gandy said. "I've worked hard for it and I know the team worked hard for me so I could get them the ball and rack up the points, so it's a good feeling. Took me a little longer than I wished but I finally got it, now it's in the past and I can move on."
It was the Bulldogs who managed to strike first Tuesday, getting on the board early after Logann Eldredge beat Katelyn Miller with her first shot of the day just 30 seconds in to make it 1-0.
They would double the lead to 2-0 less than a minute later to put the Colonials on their heels off the hop.
After Jordan Anderson got the Colonials on the board with her first of the season, a yellow card on Hannah Krats gave Gandy the chance she'd been looking for, setting up the graduate attack with a free position attempt that she buried for her third goal of the season and career-point No. 180.
"It's hard to play with that amount of pressure on you as a young athlete," head coach Katrina Silva said. "That's a huge accomplishment for our program and something we'll all remember for a long time. We all knew she was close going into today, so it was great to see her finally get it."
The record-breaking tally touched off a 7-1 run for the Colonials before the half was over, including a hat trick from Gandy as well as a pair from Kelsey Nelson to make it a 9-3 Colonials lead after 30 minutes of play.
Three more quick tallies from RMU at the onset of the second half pushed it to 12-3 for RMU.
Just as the Colonials looked like they were running away with things, a 4-0 run from Fresno State including a pair of free-position goals made it a game once again.
Isabelle Robarge's first career goal gave RMU a bit more breathing room despite the intense attack from the Bulldogs.
Though FSU would cut the lead down to just five with ten minutes to play, a few big stops from Jamie Keller in goal as well as some tightening up on defense from the Colonials helped keep FSU at arms length until time ran out and RMU secured its second straight win.
The Colonials' graduate class combined for nine of their eighteen goals on the day. Robarge and Kathleen Kelly each scored the first of their careers.
"It's definitely a great feeling, I'm really happy with our start," Gandy said. "Especially with starting off with the win against Liberty, I think we've shown this team has a lot of heart and a lot of grit in us."
