MEADVILLE, Pa. -- The Allegheny women's lacrosse team used 10-straight goals in the middle portion of the game to snap an eight-match losing streak against Buffalo State with a 13-7 victory on Saturday.
The win improves the Gators to 3-1 on the season, and marks their first triumph over the Bengals since April 5, 2006 when Allegheny earned a 9-8 win on the road.
Brenna Lawler (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) got Allegheny on the board early with the game's first goal in the opening 30 seconds of the contest. Buffalo State countered with two goals in less than a minute to steal a 2-1 lead with 26:12 left to play.
Senna Perelman (Cleveland, Ohio/Cleveland Heights) and
Evi Malagise (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) then scored back-to-back goals to regain the lead for the home team at 3-2 with 24:36 remaining in the opening half. The next three goals, however, came from Buffalo State to put the margin back in the Bengals' favor, 5-3, with just over 15 minutes left in the period.
Danielle Thompson (Eden, N.Y./Eden) began Allegheny's run of 10 unanswered goals with an unassisted tally of her own, trimming Buffalo State's lead to 5-4 just past the midway point of the half. Just over a minute later,
Grace Baginski (Lakeville, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy) capitalized on a feed from Malagise, to tie the game at 5-5. Thompson and Perelman both recorded their second goals of the afternoon roughly thirty seconds apart near the end of the half, giving the Gators a 7-5 advantage they would never relinquish heading into the break.
Lawler scored the first two goals of the second half to stretch the lead to 9-5 with just over 26:09 left in regulation. Perelman,
Elizabeth Dolan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) and
Devin Gaffney (Rochester, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy) combined for Allegheny's next four goals, securing the home win.
Thompson led the offensive output with two goals and three assists for a game-high five points. Lawler and Perelman scored three goals a piece, while Dolan, Malagise and Baginski all chipped in with multi-point performances.
In goal,
Steph Shakespeare (Pittsburgh, Pa./Peters Township) made six saves over the first approximately 45 minutes of the game to earn the win.
Fiona Barrett (Danvers, Mass./Danvers) finished the game and turned away a pair of Buffalo State shots.
As a team, Allegheny corralled 17 of the 22 draws in the contest and caused 21 of the Bengals' 26 turnovers.
Gretchen Barbera won a game-best eight draw controls; she also caused two turnovers and scooped up two ground balls.
Raina Semenick (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) led the home team with four caused turnovers.
The Gators will return to action on Saturday, March 14, when they host Baldwin Wallace at 11 a.m. before departing for their Spring Break trip to Hilton Head, S.C., which will feature a pair of games.
