The AU women's lacrosse team suffered a hard-fought loss to the No. 12 Towson Tigers yesterday, 17-10, in its season opener. It was also the first-ever game for the team at the new William I Jacobs Recreational Complex.
The Tigers proved too tough, scoring five straight goals and closing the game on a 7-2 run to end the game with a seven-goal victory, ending AU's chance of an upset.
AU coach Ashley Flanigan said she was pleased with her team's efforts but stressed that there was room for improvement.
"I think that the intensity was decent but that there were some mental lapses during the first half and the middle of the second half that caused us problems," she said. "We need to work on keeping possession better. Today was a nice foundation to build off of for the rest of the season."
Both teams came out of the gates flying, with Towson taking the lead only 1:56 into the first half on a goal by Maggie McNamara. It was one of her four goals on the afternoon.
Although AU quickly tied it up minutes later on a Moriah Linnell tally, Towson's Brittany Woodfield countered with two of her game-high five goals to give the Tigers a quick 5-1 lead ten minutes into the contest.
The two sides continued the back-and-forth play throughout the early first half, scoring a combined 11 goals in the first fifteen minutes of the game to give Towson an 8-4 advantage.
However, AU goalie Kathleen Finnegan would settle down after her early struggles, giving up only one more goal in the first half as the Eagles cut the lead to 9-5. She was peppered with 33 total shots from the Tigers offense but made eight saves, including a couple of point-blank stops that kept her team in the match.
The second half started off in the same fashion as the first, with Towson leading an early charge to take a 10-5 lead on a goal by freshman Hillary Fratzke only 12 seconds into the period.
AU countered with three consecutive goals, two by sophomore Brittany Finnegan and another by defenseman Sarah Milewski. That cut the lead to 10-8 midway through the second half before Towson's game-ending burst.
