REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Lacrosse team overcame a pair of early deficits and used a big third quarter to beat Worcester State 17-11 Monday night inside Farquhar Field.
The Bulldogs have now won two in a row and move to 2-4, 1-2 SCIAC.
Redlands scored the game's first goal of the night thanks to Celine Flaig (Redondo Beach, CA), but saw that advantage go away ten seconds later as Worchester would come down off the ensuing draw to tie the game up, which led to three unanswered for the Lancers. Trailing 3-1 with under :20 seconds left in the period Flaig would tally her second of the game finding space in front of the goal that cut the deficit to one.
Both teams added three goals in the 2nd Quarter. Worchester extended the lead back to two six minutes into the frame, but Redlands was able to rally with Maddie Bush (Ladera Ranch, CA) and Erin Steinhour (Poway, CA) going back to back that tied the game up. Over the final 5:16 Worcester was able to recover outscoring Redlands 2-1 as they would go into the half up 6-5.
A goalie change to start the second half for Worcester proved the difference in the outcome as Redlands would score eight times across the 15:00 minutes, while shutting out the Lancer offense. This opened the game up with UR holding a seven-goal lead. During the run Flaig converted four goals, Casey Lynch (Pittsburgh, PA) added a goal and an assist and Alison Waddles (Long Beach, CA), Bush, Sydney Louie (Lafayette, CA), and Maeve Wiencek (Sherwood, OR) would each set-up a pair of goals as well.
The Lancers tried to make a comeback in the 4th Quarter, putting the starting goalie back in and outscoring Redlands 5-4, which included four of the first five tallies of the period. This made it a four-goal game with 6:40 left to play, but that's as close as they would get as UR would hold for possession after that, while outscoring the Lancers 4-1 over the final 5:41 with goals coming from Flaig, Steinhour, and Wiencek.
Flaig posted a career-high seven goals on ten shot attempts and added three ground balls. Bush scored her second hat-trick of the season with three assists and Steinhour (two goals), Waddles (one goal and one assist), Wiencek (one goal and two assists), Louie (one goal and four assists), and Lynch (two goals and one assist) all were involved in multiple goals for the Bulldogs.
Other notable performers included Kaitlyn Lesko (Buford, GA) who had a career-high five groundballs and Charlie Baum (Hesperia, CA) who recorded a career-high 12 saves and a 52.2% save percentage.
The Bulldogs held the advantage on groundballs (24-21), shots (36-25) and clear percentage (80% - 61.1%).
Redlands returns to conference play with a home game against Occidental College this Saturday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m.
