The RPI women’s lacrosse team opened up their new season by going 1-1 with a loss to Saint Anselm and a win over Denison College just one week ago over spring break. Ready to get back to work, the Red Hawks returned home for their opening game at Harkness Field on Wednesday, as they prepared to square off against Oneonta State.
The Red Dragons began firing right from the time the game started and drew first blood when senior Erin Maybeck netted a shot just eight minutes into the contest. Maybeck would add another shortly after, and thanks to an Oneonta St. attack that out-shot the Red Hawks 14-6 in the first half , RPI found itself down 4-0 headed into the break.
In the second half, freshman Sam Fennessey put RPI on the board for its first goal on the day, netting a shot past the Red Dragons’ sophomore goalie, Eileen O’Toole, for her eighth score of the young season. However, Lauren Portnoy, a freshman, answered right back for Oneonta with her second goal of the day near the 19:35 mark.
With the score at 9-2, RPI continued to battle from behind. Just less than twenty minutes remained on the game clock when the Red Hawks began a comeback effort scoring four goals and slicing the margin to just three, 9-6. That is as close as Rensselaer would come, though, as the end of regulation sealed the Red Hawks’ fate.
The final score was 9-6 as RPI picked up their second loss of the season. Fennessey and junior Natalie White had two goals apiece. Junior Morgan Wahl posted a goal and two assists. Portnoy led the way for the Red Dragons with four goals, and Maybeck added two scores of her own.
The Rensselaer women were back in action on Friday afternoon when they took on Western New England College, again at home. The Golden Bears grabbed an early 2-0 thanks to one goal apiece from senior Audrey Kelton and junior Kayte Devine, who scored just over a minute apart.
Sophomore Kerri Clark scored the first goal for the Rensselaer women at the 24:34 mark. However, both teams would continue to go back and forth at each other for the remainder of the first half, each team scoring three times to make the halftime score 5-4, WNEC on top.
When play resumed, the Red Hawks got a lift from senior Sabrina Alimi right off the bat, who tied the game up at five with her first goal of the game at the 27:46 mark. Almost immediately after Alimi’s score, Clark got back to work blasting home two more goals just one minute and thirty seconds apart to give RPI a 7-5 advantage.
At the 15:34 mark RPI maintained a 9-5 lead, but the Golden Bears were not buried yet, and went on to score five of the next seven goals. Just 2:39 is all that stood between RPI and a victory as the Red Hawks clung to a 10-9 lead, but WNEC sophomore Lindsey Fenton had different intentions and tied the game up at 10 with 1:48 remaining on the game clock.
In crunch time, with the game clock slowly ticking away, the Golden Bears took control of the ball off of the draw, but proceeded to dangerously turn it over to the Red Hawks who brought it down into their opponent’s territory. Fennessey handled the ball behind the net and sent it to Alimi who put the game winning goal past the WNEC keeper Brie Sylvia for the 11-10 victory.
Clark was the high scorer for the Red Hawks with three goals. Strife scored twice and had three assists. In addition, White and Fennessey both added two goals.
RPI will be back in action this weekend and will look to improve on their 2-2 record. Friday brings an intriguing match-up with nationally-ranked William Smith and Saturday the women will travel to Rochester to take on Nazareth College.
