The RPI women’s lacrosse team came into the weekend searching for its third win of the season in an effort to get back to .500 as its record stood at 2-3. RPI was on the road for the second week in a row as they took the field on Saturday, preparing to do battle with Nazareth College.
In the game’s opening minutes, the Golden Flyers jumped out on the Red Hawks. Just 39 seconds into the contest Nazareth junior Allison Bayer blasted a shot past RPI’s freshman goalie Ariana Hood, who split time with classmate Emily Perkins over the course of the game, to draw first blood. Fifty-three seconds later, senior teammate Caitlin Zimmer found the net as well off a free position shot, and just like that, Rensselaer found itself in a 2-0 hole.
The remainder of the first half would follow a similar trend with Nazareth dominating the field of play, scoring the first seven goals of the game while out-shooting the Red Hawks 20-4. The home-standing Golden Flyers added four more scores before the break including Zimmer’s second, two from senior Tia Morgia, and one from freshman Nora Davis. As both teams headed to their respected ends of the field for halftime, the score was 6-0 in favor of Nazareth.
When play resumed in the second half, Nazareth picked up right where they left off adding another goal from Zimmer. However, two minutes later RPI got on the board for the first time thanks to a goal from freshman Sam Fennessey.
The Golden Flyers, though, answered very quickly and scored three more times in a ten-minute span before the Red Hawks were able to get anything going.
Sophomore Emily Donowick gave Rensselaer some relief, scoring at the 15:12 mark for her first goal of the season. Fennessey would score again less than a minute later for RPI off a free position shot to make the score 10-3.
Before the game was over, Nazareth would add two more scores and RPI would add one last goal from senior Sabrina Almi in the game’s closing minute. As the final seconds of regulation ticked away, the Golden Flyers came away with the victory winning by a final score of 12-4. On the day, Nazareth out-shot RPI 32-14 and held a slight advantage in ground balls 21-18.
In goal for the Red Hawks, Hood made four saves in her 23:23 minutes of play while Perkins made six stops in the final 36:37 in which she saw action. Fennessey led the way for RPI with two goals, continuing to play well this season.
Nazareth saw seven different players record goals, and was led offensively by Morgia and Zimmer, who each had three goals apiece. Bayer added two scores of her own to add to a talented and well balanced offense.
In goal for Nazareth, the two goalies—Maria Fusco and Ann Sessler—combined to make seven saves. The Golden Flyers improved to 3-1 on the season with the win.
The Rensselaer women, whose record now stands at 2-4, will be back to the work on Friday when they take on Vassar College as they return to Liberty League action. The game will be the Red Hawks’ final game on the road before returning home to Harkness Field for a three-game home-stand in which they enter the middle portion of their schedule. Look for RPI to get work out the kinks and get back on track.
