With two tough games in five days, AU Women's Lacrosse came out even, winning its Patriot League home opener against Villanova, 7-5, on Saturday but losing at University of Maryland-Baltimore County, 9-8, in double overtime Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles got everything they could handle when the Villanova Wildcats came to Reeves field. For the second game in a row, the Eagles fell behind by two goals when Villanova scored twice within the first 10 minutes. The Eagles then scored three goals before the first half was over, leaving AU with a 3-2 lead and looking much more settled at halftime.
Junior midfielder Moriah Linnell opened up the first-half barrage with a free position goal and would eventually score a game-high four goals.
Freshman midfielder Chelsea Kapp scored her only goal of the game five minutes later to tie the game at 2. Sophomore midfielder Sarah Milewski put the ball in the net for the third Eagles goal of the half.
The momentum built in the first half seemed to carry over into the second for AU, as senior attacker Rebecca Copeland grabbed a pass from Kapp and scored to give the Eagles a two-goal advantage. Soon after Copeland's goal, a four-minute goal-scoring frenzy took over, with the Eagles and Wildcats trading goals to bring the score to 5-4.
With 20 minutes remaining in the second half, Villanova appeared to tie it up, but a late whistle from the referee nullified the tying goal. Villanova was able to put the call behind it and later tied the game at 5 with 15:30 to go.
With strong goaltending from junior Kathleen Finnegan, who had three close-range saves to preserve the tie, AU had a great chance to win.
It was Linnell who stepped up. The junior scored the go-ahead goal to put the Eagles up for good,followed by her fourth and final goal with just seconds left.
Afterward, the freshman Kapp pointed to the team's defensive effort.
"Our defense did a great job of fighting until the end and getting a turnover so we could hold the ball when we were only up by one," she said.
With her four goals, Linnell was later named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week.
"[She] works really hard and it pays off on the field," Kapp said of Linnell.
After the win against Villanova, AU hit the road Wednesday to play out-of-conference foe UMBC. Once again, the game went down to the wire, but this time AU would come up short.
With seconds remaining in regulation and AU down a goal, Milewski scored her first goal of the game, tying it at 8. That ended a wild finish, with four goals scored in the last four minutes.
With the start of overtime, AU looked like it might win back-to-back games. Junior defender Laura Barnes and Milewski both got off good shots, but Milewski's shot went wide and Barnes' was stopped by UMBC's 'keeper. The second overtime started badly for AU as the Retrievers scored off an Eagle turnover 30 seconds into the period.
AU had the next two minutes to tie and had a few good scoring opportunities, including a last-second shot by Copeland. But they all missed, leaving the Eagles with five loses on the season. With the win, UMBC climbs to 2-4.
The Eagles will entertain another nonconference opponent this Friday, as the University of Denver visits Reeves Field. The game starts at 3 p.m.
