Women's Lacrosse On Wrong End Of Overtime Thriller

HORSHAM, Pa. – Despite several comeback attempts, both large and small, the Wells College women's lacrosse posted a 15-14 overtime loss to the Nittany Lions of Penn St.-Abington on Friday at Hatboro-Horsham High School. With the loss, Wells falls to 2-6 overall on the season and to 2-3 within the North Eastern Athletic Conference. Penn St.-Abington earned their second win in 13 games (2-11, 2-4 NEAC) with the victory.

The overtime game was the first for Wells dating back to Apr. 24, 2010, a 17-16 home victory versus Cazenovia in the NEAC postseason. In all-time program history, Wells falls to 4-3 in overtime across the team's 35 year history.

Freshman Shianne Stokes (Mays Landing, N.J.) registered five goals and an assist for six points (5-1=6) while junior Marina Fargnoli (Apalachin, N.Y.) tallied four goals and an assist for five points (4-1=5) in the losing effort. Fargnoli also chipped in with 10 draw controls while posting a team-best six ground balls. Senior defenseman Brittany White (Lewiston, N.Y.) caused a team-best two turnovers.

The Express trailed by an 8-2 margin through the game's first 26:56 as Avery Winn's fifth goal of the game extended the hosts lead. Wells, however, mounted a dramatic comeback with five-straight goals to cut the score to 8-7 with only 21:36 left in the second half. Penn St.-Abington scored four of the game's next five goals from 18:08 to 11:03, recapturing a 12-8 lead down the stretch.

Wells made a comeback for the ages with 2:32 left in regulation time. Down by a 12-8 score, the Express scored four goals across that time frame to knot the score at 12. A Nittany Lions foul with only 17 ticks left on the scoreboard set sophomore Lexie Roberson (Winston-Salem, N.C.) up to be the hero. On the free position attempt, Roberson registered her first goal of the game to send the game to overtime.

In the overtime period, Fargnoli scored only 51 seconds into the extra stanza to place Wells ahead 13-12. Back-to-back goals from Winn, however, forced another dramatic comeback from the Express. With eight seconds left before the two teams switched sides, Stokes scored her team's 14th goal to tie the game in dramatic fashion.

The Nittany Lions took advantage of four Wells turnovers in the final three minutes and ultimately scored the game's final goal with 1:34 left in the overtime period. Katelyn Haas picked up a loose ball following a Wells save and scored her 16th goal of the season only nine seconds later to elevate her team late in the contest.

Wells committed two of their four turnovers in the period with 49 seconds left and ultimately failed to clear the ball with 24 seconds left on the clock. Penn St.-Abington's Haas picked up the ground ball off of the failed clear with 16 seconds left and simply drained the clock, leaving Wells on the losing end of a hard-fought game.

Despite making more saves (17-to-5) and winning more draws (20-to-13) than the host Nittany Lions (17-to-5), Wells committed more turnovers and cleared the ball successfully on only 13-of-30 trips up field from the defensive end. Winn led her team with nine goals while Chasidy McLaurin scored three goals and one assist for four points (3-1=4).

Express goaltender Chelsea Dann (Flagstaff, Ariz.) earned the start and made seven saves on 15 total shots faced before yielding to freshman Brooke Spanbauer (Niagara Falls, N.Y.). Across the game's final 36 minutes, Spanbauer made 10 saves on 17 total shots to keep her team in the game. Sandy Cao earned the victory for Penn St.-Abington, despite allowing 14 goals on only 19 shots faced.

Wells returns to action Saturday, Apr. 19 as they face-off against the Screaming Eagles from the College of Saint Elizabeth in a 1:00 p.m. road contest.