REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Lacrosse team fell 15-12 to visiting Chapman University on Friday morning at Farquhar Field in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) matchup.
The Bulldogs (4-10, 3-7) honored their eight seniors Joren Fettig (Bend, OR), Kaitlyn Lesko (Buford, GA), Alison Waddles (Long Beach, CA), Maeve Wiencek (Sherwood, OR), Sydney Louie (Lafayette, CA), Maddie Bush (Ladera Ranch, CA), Casey Lynch (Pittsburgh, PA), and Erika Lopez(Los Angeles, CA) in their last home game before graduation.
On a cold, windy day the Panthers started quickly with six unanswered goals across the first thirteen minutes of action. The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard with :21 seconds remaining in the quarter thanks to a free position goal from Louie.
Redlands carried this momentum into the 2nd Quarter when they scored the first three goals thanks to Celine Flaig (Redondo Beach, CA) getting fed by Sasha Charrier (Austin, TX), Fettig and freshman Erin Steinhour (Poway, CA) who would get setup by Wiencek trimming the Panther lead to two at 6-4.
After allowing Chapman to extend their lead to four with under ten minutes to play in the half, the Bulldogs scored two of the final three goals coming from Waddles and Steinhour, which pulled UR within three at the break.
The Bulldogs came out fired up in the 3rd Quarter winning the period, outscoring Chapman 4-2. Louie opened up the scoring with two goals in the first minute and a half, both coming on person-down situations. This brought Redlands with one for the first time since the 11:09 mark of the first quarter. After a Waddles' goal sandwiched between two Chapman tallies, Fettig was found by Louie at the 7:17 mark to close the gap to one once again, 11-10.
After a great middle of the game that saw the Bulldogs hold the Panthers scoreless for 9:05 from the end of the third through the beginning of the fourth, their offense stalled going scoreless for twenty minutes as they found themselves down 15-10 after CU scored for straight. The run ended with 2:16 left as Fettig would convert being a down a player. She would then come down again with :48 seconds left in the game knocking in her fourth score making it a three-goal deficit, but that's as close as the Maroon and Grey would get as Chapman would hold on for the road victory.
Fettig led the way offensively with four goals and added a ground ball, Louie had an all-around game with three goals, two assists, and four ground balls, Steinhour and Waddles each had two goals apiece, and Flaig finished with a goal and three ground balls. In goal Charlie Baum (Hesperia, CA) made six saves and played all 60 minutes.
Despite the loss Redlands was plus four in ground balls (21-17), plus nine in turnovers (13-22), plus seven in draw controls (18-11), out-shot the Panthers by five (32-27), and were more efficient in their clears, successfully clearing 93.3 percent (14-for-15) of their attempts while Chapman sat at 75 percent (18-for-24). The one area that hurt the Bulldogs was free position attempts, where the Panthers were 6-for-8 while the Bulldogs were only 3-for-7.
The Bulldogs have two more conference games on the schedule with the first occurring next Wednesday, April 27 on the road against Whittier College beginning at 7:00pm.
