The AU women's lacrosse team stormed out to a 7-0 lead in the opening period and then held off a surging California-Davis squad in the second half to pull out a 9-7 victory Thursday.
The win was the first for AU over a non-conference opponent at its home field this season and improved the Eagles' record to 5-6.
From the beginning of the game, it looked as if the Eagles would be in complete control. After nearly 12 minutes of scoreless play, junior Sarah Milewski recorded a pair of goals 20 seconds apart to give AU a 2-0 lead.
Senior defender Laura Barnes scored her first career goal, while teammates Brittany Finnegan, Jackie Lane and Moriah Linnell all tallied in quick succession to round out the first half of play to give AU a commanding 6-0 lead.
Senior goaltender Kathleen Finnegan turned away all five shots she saw in the period for a first-half shutout
However, the game soon turned into a tale of two halves. After freshman Leslie Fischer put in a goal only 90 seconds into the second half, UC-Davis went on a 6-1 run highlighted by freshman Patrice Clark, who scored a game-high four goals to cut AU's lead to 8-6.
Milewski potted an insurance goal with four minutes to go, completing her own hat trick and rounding out the scoring.
While she was happy with the victory, coach Ashley Flanigan saw some areas that clearly needed improvement.
"We came out really intense in the first half but then we got a little too comfortable and lost our focus," she said. "We need to play a complete 60 minutes and put out the same effort for the entire game."
Still, she offered some praise of her team's output it the first half, including for Finnegan's stops and the six different scorers.
Next up for the Eagles is non-conference foe Maryland-Baltimore County at home Tuesday. They return to Patriot League play Saturday when they host Holy Cross.
