PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Robert Morris women's lacrosse team dropped its final non-conference matchup Sunday at Joe Walton Stadium, dropping a 12-8 decision to the Cincinnati Bearcats. The loss drops the  Colonials to 5-6 on the season.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

A tight first quarter saw RMU withstand an initial push from the Bearcats before flipping the script on CU and responding with a run of their own to cut the deficit at the half to two at 6-4. Jamie Keller came up with a pair of huge stops in the first two minutes of action turning aside point-blank chances from Kylie Nause and Elizabeth Murphy 17 seconds apart before producing another huge stop on Alyssa Adams' free-position attempt to keep it scoreless. After Lilli Hadden got RMU on the board with her sixth of the year near the end of the first quarter, a 4-0 run for the Bearcats saw Cincinnati grab some breathing room at 5-1 late in the second, however three straight Colonials goals from Jenna Irwin, Gianna Anthony and Jerica Obee helped the Colonials get the deficit down to two before the half was out. 

SCORING STREAK

Freshman Jenna Irwin potted two goals against the Bearcats to extend her scoring streak to ten straight games and her overall team lead to 25 on the season. Obee led RMU with three points and extended her scoring streak to five games while Coleen Tifft's tally in the second pushed her streak to seven straight games with a goal.  Lilli Hadden (five games) and Julia Koterwas (four games) also saw their goal-scoring streak extended.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

Despite trailing by just a pair at the half, the Bearcats managed to reset to start the third and outscore RMU 6-2 over the final 22 minutes of action Sunday. The Colonials managed to draw even after Obee and Koterwas scored back-to-back to start the third, however they could not sustain the momentum. Elizabeth Murphy put Cincinnati back on top less than a minute after Koterwas drew the Colonials even before three straight goal to end the third gave them the cushion they needed to stave off an RMU comeback.

QUOTABLES

"We rotated through some different looks on defense today which was good to see, but there's still some things we need to work on. We need to do a better job of taking care of ground balls and be better defensively. Cincinnati is a good team, a fast team. We needed to match that intensity and at times today we didn't." - Head Coach Katrina Silva

NEXT UP

The Colonials head to Detroit for a showdown with the Detroit Mercy Titans on Saturday, April 2 at noon.