Women's Lacrosse Clipped By Penn St.-Abington, 15-8

CORTLAND, N.Y. – Despite three different players scoring two goals, the Wells College women's lacrosse team posted a 15-8 loss to Penn St.-Abington on the campus of SUNY Cortland Saturday afternoon. With the loss, Wells falls to 0-1 both overall and within North Eastern Athletic Conference play while the Nittany Lions improve to 3-3 overall (1-0 NEAC).

Senior Marina Fargnoli (Apalachin, N.Y.), junior Andrea Gould (Fulton, N.Y.) and classmate Lexie Roberson (Winston-Salem, N.C.) each scored two goals for the Express, who outshot the Nittany Lions by a 28-to-27 margin. Junior Alaina Kelahan (Cazenovia, N.Y.) added a goal of her own while freshman Nicole Sales (Woodbury, Conn.) struck for the first of her career to round out the scoring.

Gould scored the first goal of the game with only 2:14 elapsed in regulation time but a Wells yellow card allowed Michaela Mast to score with the man advantage just over four minutes later. The Nittany Lions scored eight more times to conclude the half despite two Wells goals from Roberson down the stretch.

The Nittany Lions carried a 9-3 lead into halftime, but the Express scored three of the first five goals of the second half. Back-to-back goals from Wells with just under five minutes remaining in the game cut the score to 13-8, but Bridget Meade and Katelyn Kelly struck for Penn St.-Abington in the final two minutes to create the final score of 15-8.

Despite Wells holding advantages in shots (28-to-27), draw controls (13-to-11) and turnovers (28-to-30), Penn St.-Abington placed 23 of their 27 shots on goal while Wells missed wide with 10 of their shots. Chasidy McLaurin and Mast led the Nittany Lions in goal scoring with four while Katelyn Haas scored three goals and three assists for six points.

The difference for Penn St.-Abington, however, was that only four of their 27 shots missed the cage. The Nittany Lions also saw stellar play from their backup goalkeeper, Corey Pecuch, who turned aside 10 shots to earn her first collegiate victory in goal.

Wells backstop, Quinn Doubet (Virgil, N.Y.), kept her team in the game with eight saves but the shots on goal differential proved to be too much for the Express to overcome. Sophomore Sydney Line (Northport, N.Y.) led the Wells defense with three forced turnovers.

Wells has a quick turnaround as they return to action Sunday, Mar. 22 at high noon against the College of Saint Elizabeth. Due to unplayable field conditions in Aurora, the Express will battle the Eagles at Higgins Stadium on the campus of Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y.