The University of Redlands women's lacrosse team squared off against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges Athenas on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Farquhar Field. While taking on the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's undefeated foe, the Bulldogs battled in a tight first half but struggled to maintain possession and ultimately fell in a 7-13 decision.
The Maroon and Gray jumped on the board first, when freshman midfielder Sadie Pickering (Tacoma, WA) took advantage of a second-chance opportunity in front of the net. After the CMS goalkeeper made the save on Pickering's free-position shot, Pickering quickly corralled the ball and immediately fired off another attempt, with this one finding the back of the net for Redlands' 1-0 lead at the 24:27-mark of the first half.
After the Athenas equalized the score, the Bulldogs went right back to work, as freshman defender Chelsea Sahami (Millbrae, CA) grabbed a loose ball to set up another Redlands free-position shot. Senior attack player Dulce Moll (Mercer Island, WA) converted the shot for the Maroon and Gray's 2-1 lead with 19:31 remaining.
However, CMS enjoyed a lucrative four-goal spurt to force Redlands into a game of catch-up. Trailing 2-5, the Bulldogs saw junior midfielder Lacey Bjorndal (Sherwood, OR) snag the subsequent draw control, which quickly evolved into sophomore midfielder Hanna Morford's (West Linn, OR) first goal of the day.
Over the next five minutes, the Redlands defense kept CMS off the board, as junior goalkeeper Quinn Egan (Greenwood Village, CO) recorded a pair of critical saves, including one off of an Athena free-position shot. Following a Bulldog timeout, the home team orchestrated a sweet combination off of an assist by Morford and a goal by Bjorndal to make it a one-score game with 5:48 left in the half.
Although CMS scored once more before the end of the half, the Bulldogs hung tough to close out the period with a slight two-goal hole, thanks in part to two more big stops by Egan. She went on to finish the day with 13 saves.
Unfortunately for the home team, the Athenas came out firing in the second half and extended their advantage to 12-4 with 15:09 remaining in the game. Moll, Bjorndal, and Pickering each mustered late scores for the Bulldogs, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
Beyond scoring twice, Bjorndal hauled in five of Redlands' 10 draw controls. Egan picked up seven ground balls for the Bulldogs.
Redlands (7-5, 2-4 SCIAC) strives to return to the win column when it heads to Whittier College on Wednesday, April 12, for a 7 p.m. SCIAC match against the Poets.
