Senior Hilary Lahn finished her Rensselaer lacrosse career on a positive note, tallying seven points in 14-10 season-ending victory over the Oneonta State Red Dragons in a make-up game from earlier this season. Earlier in the week, the Red Hawks came up short in another rescheduled contest against the Hartwick Hawks, losing 7-5.
Paced by a natural hat trick by Jamie Boulton, home standing Hartwick jumped out to a 4-0 halftime lead against RPI last Tuesday. It didn’t take the Red Hawks long to find the back of the net in the second half, however. Junior Kate Phillips received a feed from freshman Carly Strife and beat Hawk goalie Amanda Gerich 1:59 into the half.
After Hartwick’s Kelsey Campbell and RPI freshman Morgan Wahl swapped goals 22 seconds apart, Tiffany Hoke and Rachel Johnson beat senior Megan Gaul with free position shots to give Hartwick a 7-2 lead with just under 11 minutes remaining.
Phillips, Lahn, and Strife all found the back of the net in the final five and a half minutes, but it was too little, too late, for the Red Hawks.
Gerich and Gaul each recorded seven saves apiece for their respective squads.
RPI returned home on Thursday for its final game of the season, looking to end a three game losing streak. After Jessica Garabedian put the Red Dragons up just 18 seconds into the game, Wahl, Phillips, freshman Natalie White, and Lahn scored four unanswered goals in a 10 minute stretch to take a 4-1 lead. Junior Rebecca Primm and sophomore Brianne Balzer assisted on the Phillips and White goals, respectively.
Erin Maybeck pulled Oneonta back within one with two goals in just 51 seconds. Wahl and Lahn each tallied their second points of the game when Lahn fed a pass to Wahl with 10:18 left in the first.
After Kim Powell and Rebecca Tilden scored on either side of a Phillips goal, Lahn scored two goals in a nine second span. Ten seconds after Lahn’s second goal, Garabedian got one of them back for the Red Dragons. Balzer finished the first half scoring with 13 seconds left with a free position goal to give the Red Hawks a 9-6 lead at halftime.
Maybeck closed the deficit to two with her third goal of the game 2:15 into the second but Lahn, senior Lauren Marotta, and sophomore Emily Pulli tallied the next three goals in 78 seconds, pushing the lead to 12-7 with under 25 minutes remaining. The goals by Marotta and Pulli were their first of the season.
Powell kept Oneonta in the game with two goals in an eight minute span but Lahn and Phillips put the game away with goals five minutes apart. Maybeck finished the scoring with 19 seconds left on a free position shot.
Jocelyn Grafstein finished with seven saves for the 2-10 Red Dragons. Gaul, who was named Liberty League Defensive Performer of the Week, finished with 18 saves.
The Red Hawks finish the season 6-7 overall.
Lahn, who was named Liberty League Co-Offensive Performer of the Week for her eight point week, led RPI this season with 35 goals and 11 assists for 46 points. She also had three game winning goals. Gaul finished the season with 151 saves and a 8.32 goals-against-average. She also boasted a .581 save percentage good for second in the Liberty League.
Two other seniors, Elisa Prange and Marotta, saw their RPI careers come to a close against Oneonta. Prange recorded three goals and one assist for four points and Marotta’s goal against the Red Dragons was her only point on the season.
With 12 players returning next year, including only three soon-to-be seniors, the future looks very bright for the women’s lacrosse program.
