The University of Redlands women's lacrosse team hosted the Tigers of Occidental College for Wednesday's Senior Night on Farquhar Field. In a hard-fought Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match, the Bulldogs held a slight 6-5 lead at the midway point of the game but a switch in momentum left the home team on the losing end of a 9-15 decision.
Prior to the game, the Bulldogs celebrated the various careers of senior goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO), senior midfielder Jacquelyn Archey (Sammamish, WA), senior defender Katie Koehler (Jackson, WY), and senior midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR) with a short on-field presentation.
After the Tigers scored the opening goal, Redlands looked to sophomore midfielder Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) to answer with a two-goal outburst over a four-minute span. Her second netter came off a sweet pass by junior midfielder Hanna Morford (West Linn, OR).
The teams traded scores over the next three minutes, with Pickering finding an open first-year attacker Amanda Levandowski (San Diego, CA) for the Bulldogs' third goal of the game. This opportunity presented itself off sophomore midfielder Chelsea Sahami's (Millbrae, CA) draw control in Redlands' defensive third before the home team worked the ball all the way back for the score.
With neither team scoring for seven minutes, Redlands relied on the impressive play of Egan, who stepped up with four of her nine saves in the first half during this span.
The Maroon and Gray took a 4-3 lead when Archey sent a ball across the 12-meter fan that found Bjorndal for the score at the 11:03-mark. Sixty-five seconds earlier, Bjorndal regained possession for the Bulldogs by forcing the Tigers into a turnover and hauling in the subsequent ground ball.
The Maroon and Gray earned its only two-goal advantage of the game when junior attacker Adi Fellows (Albuquerque, NM) found the back of the net off an assist from junior attacker Kelsey Ruhl (Settle, WA) with 6:01 remaining.
Nonetheless, Occidental stormed back with a pair of scores to even the tally before Redlands' Morford put her team back on top with an unassisted goal with 49 seconds left in the half. After a Bulldog shot sailed wide and Oxy regained possession, Morford immediately forced the Tigers to turn it over, snagged the loose ball, and went straight to goal for the 6-5 lead.
After the Tigers scored twice to start the second half, Redlands responded to tie it up at seven apiece off another Bjorndal goal less than five minutes into the action.
However, the Tigers' second-half adjustments proved more effective, as they outscored the Bulldogs, 8-2, in the remainder of the game. The home team battled until the very end, with Fellows and Levandowski recording one more goal apiece, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
Redlands (7-9, 3-6 SCIAC) heads to Pomona-Pitzer Colleges for its final conference game of the regular season on Sunday, April 22, at 7 p.m.
