Saints Sustain Laker Rally

Neither rain, mud, nor a red-hot goalkeeper could keep St. Lawrence from their eighth win of the season Friday. The Saints outlasted Oswego State 15-13 in women's lacrosse action at Laker field. St. Lawrence came out victorious despite a scoreless stretch of 18:21 in the second half during which their lead shrunk from 13-8 to 13-12.

Oswego State goalie Shannon O'Brien (pictured) made several saves during that run to aid the Lakers' comeback bid, she finished the contest with 13 stops altogether. Laker senior Michelle MenDell found the back of the net with 13:04 remaining in regulation to close the gap to one with her second goal of the day. The teams then traded several possessions without a score as a muddy field wreaked havoc on attackers and defenders alike.

Then just as the sun began to peak over the clouds, Saint senior Alanna Waters found freshman Kelsey Redpath through a seam in the defense. Redpath rifled the ball pasty O'Brien and into the twine for her third marker of the game as St. Lawrence took a 14-12 lead with 9:05 to play.

Oswego State would answer by going on the offensive and creating several chances against Saint goalie Anna Marchand. The freshman made several key saves to sustain the two-goal lead. But MenDell eventually broke free once again and netted goal number three with just over five minutes remaining. However, that would be the closest the Lakers would get to erasing the deficit.

Waters recorded her second goal of the game with 3:07 left to put the Saints up 15-13. Eight seconds later Laker midfielder Alisha Sarubbi took her second yellow card of the day for a blow to the head and was disqualified. The card was also the fourth the Lakers had earned as a team, putting them a man down for the remainder of the contest. That allowed the Saints to employ a stall offense and run out the remainder of regulation and improve their record to 8-3.

The loss dropped Oswego to 4-5 and 0-3 in games when they have a chance to move above .500. The Lakers return to action Sunday afternoon in non-conference action at Clarkson. Faceoff is scheduled for noon. In other Laker news, today's baseball doubleheader with Plattsburgh has been moved to Monday.

Ryan Maloney