Although Lafayette athletics hasn’t had a winning season, the women’s lacrosse team is emerging as a lone bright spot.
After starting their season 6-3, the Leopards traveled up to Hamilton, N.Y. to take on the Colgate Raiders in their second conference match of the season.
The Leopards started off slow, giving up a 6-1 lead to the Raiders. However, Lafayette responded and rattled off five straight goals, with two of them being scored in the final 12 seconds of the half. The game was pretty much even for the rest of the way, as the Leopards found themselves with the ball in a tied game with less than a minute to play. Then, senior Maggie Carver connected with sophomore Mairead Janzer who put ball in the net with 14.8 seconds to play to win it for the Leopards 14-13.
Sophomores Emma Novick and Jane Kirby led the way for the Leopards, scoring four and three goals, respectively. Top goal scorer in the nation, senior Kirsten Wilhelmsen, also added two goals and two assists.
The victory got the Leopards back into the win column after falling to Villanova on March 22. And with seven wins on the season, they surpassed last year’s total of six in just the 10th game of the season. The Leopards then traveled to Lewisburg, Penn. to take on the Bucknell Bison in another Patriot League matchup.
Despite having a 14-9 lead with nine minutes left, the Leopards allowed the Bison to get back into the game after going on a 4-0 run. Fortunately for the Leopards, the Bison ran out of time and Lafayette held on for the 14-13 victory. Wilhelmsen scored four goals and Novick had yet another hat trick to power the offense over the Bison.
With the win, the Leopards moved to 8-3 on the season and 3-0 in the Patriot Leauge. This is the best start to a season for Lafayette since 2002 and is the first time they’ve been undefeated in conference play after three games since 2003.
Next up for the Leopards is the American Eagles, where Lafayette will look to remain unbeaten in Patriot League play. The opening draw is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday at Fisher Field.
