LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Robert Morris women's lacrosse team dropped a non-conference matchup against the Liberty Flames Saturday afternoon, falling 18-5 at the Liberty Lacrosse Field. The loss drops the Colonials to 2-4 overall on the season.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Though the Colonials would take a 2-1 lead early, an 8-0 run by the Flames over the next 17 minutes of game time would put the Colonials in a hole on the road going into the second half. Freshman Jenna Irwin continued her scoring tear, opening things up with the first goal of the game just 34 seconds off the opening draw and netted a second just over three minutes later to help RMU regain the lead at 2-1, however the Flames managed to capitalize on number of RMU turnovers scoring three times before before the quarter was out to make it 4-2 LU. They would stretch it to a 9-2 before Colleen Tifft was finally able to stop the bleeding with her fourth of the season for the Colonials, however one more tally for the Flames with 40 seconds to play in the second made it a 10-3 Liberty lead at the half.
STILL STREAKING
With two more goals against the Flames Saturday, freshman Jenna Irwin extended her goal scoring streak to five games and her season total to 13. Her current clip of 2.16 goals per game puts Irwin on pace for just under 35 goals for a full season and would be the ninth-best goals per-game mark in program history and fourth highest single-season total for a Colonial freshman in history. Annie Sachs owns the single-season record for goals by an RMU rookie with 51 set during the 2017 campaign.
DRAW DOMINANCE
Junior Jordan Anderson continued her impressive work in the draw control unit for the Colonials this season, grabbing another eleven draw controls against the Flames. It marks the second straight game with double-digit draws for Anderson after the Minnesota native finished with ten earlier this week against Kent State and extended her total to 37 on the season. She became just the second player in program history to reach 100 draws in a season last year and is on pace for 98 in 2022.
TWO-HEADED MONSTER
The Colonials limited Liberty to eight goals Saturday afternoon, save for two players: sophomores Jordan Baerga and Mackenzie Lehman who each finished the day with five goals a piece. Lehman, a native of McMurray, Pa. and a graduate of Peters Township HS also scored in RMU's 9-8 win over Liberty last season at Joe Walton Stadium.
NEXT UP
RMU returns to conference play next week when they travel to Akron for a showdown with the Zips on Wednesday, March 9 at 3:00 p.m.
