While never trailing in Wednesday's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest, the University of Redlands women's lacrosse held off a late scoring surge by the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges en route to an important 13-10 victory.
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with a trio of goal-scorers stepping up by the fourth minute of the game. Sophomore attack player Crystal Painter (Lake George, NY) found junior midfielder Megan Prickett (Poway, CA) to initiate the offense, with Prickett then connecting with freshman midfielder Jacky Craycraft (Lake Forest, CA) less than three minutes later. Senior midfielder Christy Smith (St. Louis Park, MN) provided the assist on Painter's first goal of the game at 26:04 to complete this team hat trick.
Although Pomona-Pitzer answered with back-to-back goals, Redlands rattled off four unanswered scores to make it a 7-2 game with less than 10 minutes to go in the opening frame. Six different players combined efforts to record four goals and four assists for the Bulldogs.
The teams traded scores to finish out the half with Redlands holding an 8-3 advantage.
After the break, the Sagehens struck first but this inspired a three-goal outburst from the Maroon and Gray. Painter, sophomore attack player Aimee Dewan (Alamo, CA) and Prickett provided repeat performances, giving them each a multi-score game early in the second stanza.
However, Pomona-Pitzer unleashed five consecutive netters, making the final four minutes of the game much more interesting than anticipated.
With an 11-9 lead, the Bulldogs stepped up with two final scores to the Sagehens' single goal in the waning minutes. Painter notched her team-leading fourth netter of the game, while Smith recorded an insurance goal with just 10 seconds left.
Junior goalkeeper Ana Martinez (Pleasanton, CA) made 14 stops between the pipes during a complete-game performance.
Prickett and Craycraft dominated the draw controls for Redlands, combining for 10 of the team's 13.
Redlands (11-1, 3-1 SCIAC) heads to Claremont again on Saturday when it faces off against conference rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs' only loss of the 2011 season came at the hands of the Athenas on March 30 by a one-goal margin.