The University of Redlands women's lacrosse team battled it out against the Fighting Scots of the College of Wooster (OH) in a non-conference game under wet and wild conditions on Farquhar Field on Tuesday night. Although the Bulldogs fought to keep things close, they played from behind for the majority of the contest and fell short in a hard-fought 8-11 decision.
Less than four minutes into the action, the Maroon and Gray scored the first goal of the night, when sophomore attacker Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) blasted a free-position shot past the Wooster goalkeeper.
However, the Fighting Scots came right back to tie it up 59 seconds later.
As the teams struggled to maintain possession in the rain, the next shot came five minutes later off the visiting team's stick and resulted in Wooster's 2-1 lead.
But Redlands immediately responded, as Pickering snagged the ensuing draw control and went straight to goal to even the tally at two all.
Slipping and sliding made it difficult to create many offensive opportunities. Nonetheless, the Bulldogs regained the lead on a free-position goal by first-year attacker Breanna Gunderson (San Diego, CA) with 14:35 to go in the first frame.
However, the Scots fired off four-straight scores before Redlands' Pickering converted an opening-half hat trick with her third goal at the 3:39-mark.
Senior goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO) made stop after stop in the final few minutes of the stanza. As the teams headed into the intermission, Redlands trailed by a score of 4-6.
The Bulldogs battled to keep it a two-goal game throughout the second half, with Gunderson, Pickering, and junior attacker Kelsey Ruhl (Seattle, WA) accounting for the Maroon and Gray's four goals and one assist. But it was not enough to make up the deficit, resulting in the 8-11 defeat for the home team.
Egan faced 20 shots and made 10 stops in a valiant effort between the pipes. Defensively, she gained quality support from junior defender Alexis Pound (Washington, DC), sophomore defender Emma Brown Thunder (Falcon Heights, MN), and senior midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR), as they each caused two turnovers by the Scots.
Redlands earned a slight, 11-10 edge in draw controls, with Bjorndal hauling in seven of them.
The Bulldogs (3-5) face Augsburg University (MN) on Wednesday, March 14, at 7 p.m. on Farquhar Field.