Second Half surge not Enough for Women's Lacrosse at St. Mary's College Saturday
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Dallas women's lacrosse team (4-7) made a second half rally, but were unable to close the gap as St. Mary's College (7-10) held on to an 8-6 victory Saturday. UD is now 1-3 on a season-long, five-game road trip that concludes Sunday.
The Belles jumped out to a 2-0 lead through about the first 10 minutes of the game. It was a defensive battle in the early going, as the home team did not tally a netter until nearly six minutes ticked off the clock in the opening stanza.
Freshman Sarah Schmitz (Huntington, N.Y.) put Dallas on the board with her seventh goal of the year, and fourth-straight match, to cut the margin in half with 14:24 until the break. Senior Mary Hilker (Haslett, Mich.) delivered the pass to get the assist on the sequence.
The tandem in that scoring play would pace the Navy and White with two goals each and combined for six shots. Schmitz managed a team-high four, and fired the lone Lady Crusader netters in the first half.
St. Mary's was ahead 6-2 at intermission and would be ahead by as many as five to hold the greatest advantage with 21:20 in regulation.
The Lady Crusaders clawed back within three as freshman Jackie Barboza (Houston, Texas) rattled her first collegiate goal, and Hilker found the back of the cage with 9:21 remaining. The Midfielder scored consecutive times just under two minutes later to bring the deficit back to three, after SMC countered with a goal by Emilie Vanneste with 9:01.
Completing the scoring was freshman Patty Hahn (Plano, Texas) with 11th on the season, and would be the final display on the scoreboard as the remaining 5:42 ticks counted off the clock. Junior Colby Madrigal (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Hahn each tallied three shots, with Hahn putting the whole trio on goal.
Madrigal earned two points to finish among Hilker and Schmitz with multiple totals in that category off a game-high two assists. The midfielder also recorded a team-high seven groundballs.
Collecting a season-high 19 saves was senior Christine Jablonsky (Colorado Springs, Colo.). In a complete 60-minute effort, the keeper faced 27 shots. She boosted her career count to 402 and improved her save percentage on the spring to a 51.9-clip.
The Belles held the advantage in shots with 30-21 and 27-11 shots on goal. Dallas notched 31 groundballs, while its opponent got ahold of 41. St. Mary's also won 11 draw controls, with a 7-2 advantage happening in the first half against the Lady Crusaders.
Leading the offense for SMC was Vanneste with a game-high three goals. Her hat trick came off eight shots, which tied a team-most, and all eight were on cage. Clare Theisen claimed the other multi-scoring game for the Belles.
Shannon Weyer (7-10) stopped five saves in 60 minutes between the pipes as she earned the win.
UP NEXT
Dallas wraps up the 2015 spring with an 11 a.m. contest at Illinois Institute of Technology.