The RPI women’s lacrosse team came into the week in desperate need of a win after dropping its previous four contests. The Red Hawks first faced Clarkson Friday afternoon, and then Saint Lawrence on Saturday in an effort to get things rolling again.
On Friday, action in the first half began evenly matched. Clarkson jumped out on top at the 29:42 mark when Kimberly Loucks scored an unassisted goal. RPI soon countered with back-to-back scores from sophomore Kerri Clark, one from a free position shot and the second unassisted, as the Red Hawks found themselves up 2-1.
A similar trend continued over the course of the next 15 minutes. Clarkson fought back to tie the game at the 19:50 mark, but Rensselaer retaliated with two scores of their own from junior Natalie White and freshman Kathy Rogers. Clarkson then cut the deficit to one with 15 minutes remaining in the first, but RPI bounced right back with two more scores from Clark to make the score 6-3.
Action intensified even further in the final four minutes of play in the first half. The Golden Knights put together their first string of goals with two scores from freshmen Brittanie Carroll and Jenna Stock to again narrow the gap, but the Red Hawks persevered and tallied one final score from senior Emily Pulli with just 28 seconds remaining on the clock to maintain a 7-5 lead heading into the break.
In the second half, the RPI women opened up play with two goals, one from senior Sabrini Alimi and the other from sophomore Emily Donowick, to increase their advantage to four, 9-5. Clarkson came back with some firepower, blasting home three goals in a two minute span making it 9-8, still in Rensselaer’s favor.
Freshman Sam Fennessey scored her first goal of the game at the 22:04 mark, and Clark soon added her fifth to give the Red Hawks some more breathing room, 11-8. The Golden Knights, however, again came strong with another three-goal rally, two from junior Alicia Chace and one from Alexis Miller.
With the score tied up at 11 the Red Hawks felt a sense of urgency and got to work. RPI scored three of the game’s final four goals, and held on for a 14-12 victory. With the win the Red Hawks increased their all-time record over Clarkson to 15-0.
Clark led the way for RPI with six goals. On the day, eight different players recorded at least one goal as Rensselaer received a well-balanced offensive attack. Chace was the high scorer for Clarkson with three, while Carroll added two of her own.
The Red Hawks returned to action on Saturday versus Saint Lawrence. RPI came out strong in the first half and took an early two-goal lead thanks to scores from Fennessey and Clark. Freshman Julie Wooters got the Saints on the board with a goal at the 19:53 mark, but Rensselaer would proceed to go on an impressive three-goal run and increase the lead to 6-1 complements of Fennessey, junior Morgan Wahl, and Rogers.
Sophomore Amanda Forbes would later score twice in the first half to help the Saint Lawrence cause, but the Red Hawks closed out the half with two more goals from Wahl and Clark, and held onto a 9-3 advantage going into the intermission.
When play resumed the Saints came out on a mission. Scoring five straight goals, including an additional two from Forbes, Saint Lawrence cut their deficit to just one, 9-8, and found themselves back in the game just like that.
Sophomore Carly Mahony scored at the 3:59 mark to give Rensselaer an insurance goal late in the game. The Saints were able to score once more with two minutes left in the contest making the score 10-9, but that is as close as they would get as the Red Hawks were able to maintain possession of the ball and run out the clock.
Fennessey powered the RPI attack with four scores. Clark and Wahl each tallied two of their own. Forbes scored four goals for St. Lawrence while Brittany Misercola netted two.
With the sweep of the weekend, RPI’s record now stands at 4-6 with four games remaining on the schedule. The Red Hawks will be back this weekend as they prepare for a three-game road trip. Friday the Rensselaer women will take on Rochester at 4 pm, and then on Saturday they will do battle with Hamilton, a 2 pm start.
