No. 24 women's lacrosse falls 14-10 to Hamilton

Recap, photo courtesy of Bates College

LEWISTON, Maine -- Hamilton took an early 4-1 lead and forced the No. 24 nationally ranked Bates women's lacrosse team to play catchup the rest of the way in a 14-10 NESCAC victory Saturday at Garcelon Field.

The host Bobcats (6-4, 1-4 NESCAC) saw their three-game winning streak end despite a 33-28 advantage in shots attempted, although the Continentals (4-5, 2-3 NESCAC) had a 23-22 edge in shots on goal and a crucial 15-11 advantage in draw controls, including a 10-5 difference in the first half.

Hamilton received big games from Nicole Lyons (3 goals, 3 assists), Darby Philbrick (3 goals, 9 draw controls), Skyler Simson (3 goals, 3 draw controls) and goalie Hannah Burrall (12 saves) in their road win.

Junior Katie Allard (Rdigewood, N.J.) led Bates in scoring with a game-high four goals, increasing

her team-high season total to 25. Sophomore Caroline Kerrigan (Falls Church, Va.) tallied a career-high three points (two goals, one assist). Senior Camille Belletete (Jaffrey, N.H.) contributed seven draw controls and a pair of assists.

Bates didn't earn possession of the ball for the game's first 93 seconds, when junior goalie Eliza Statile (Ipswich, Mass.) saved a shot by Lyons. By then Hamilton led 2-0, with an unassisted tally by Kara Pooley in the first minute followed by a Philbrick draw control and goal, made possible by Lyons' looping pass from behind goal-line extended over the Bates defense to an open Philbrick.

Bates closed the gap in half when Belletete stripped the ball from Lyons and found Allard with a nice lead pass for a fast-break goal with 26:02 left in the half.

Hamilton regained the two-goal lead as Courtney Pierre found Lyons open for a lunging finish with 22:38 left in the half. Two minutes later, Burrall picked up a blocked shot by Bates' Annie Duke, and at the other end Pooley struck with a solo drive around two Bates defenders for a 4-1 Hamilton lead with 19:52 left in the half.

Bates clawed back to tie the game at 6-6, as Summer Dias's free-position goal gave the Bobcats three scores in a row with 2:27 to go. Before that, Kerrigan made a spectacular catch of Avery MacMullen's pass from behind the net, gathered and scored. But Hamilton ended the half with unassisted goals by Jackie Cuddy and Honor Gabriel for a lead they would not relinquish and a two-goal cushion at intermission.

Just as it did in the first half, Hamilton scored four of the first five goals in the opening 11 minutes of the second half. Philbrick slashed down the left wing to make it 9-6, before Simson finished a fast break off a Bates turnover for a 10-6 Hamilton lead with 26:26 left in the game. Teal Otley bounced in a free-position goal for Bates, but Hamilton made it 12-7 with goals by Lyons and Simson.

Bates assembled a 3-0 run to close the gap back down to two goals, with Kerrigan and Allard scoring, followed by junior Sydney Howard's (Ashland, Mass.) fast-break goal on an assist by Kerrigan with 14:13 left in regulation.

But Hamilton capitalized on a Bates turnover as Pooley hit Philbrick cutting across the Bates goal for a 13-10 lead with 10:50 left.

Burrall made four saves over the final nine minutes, including free-position attempts by Belletete, Kerrigan and Margaret Smith, to preserve the four-goal lead and the victory.