The AU women's lacrosse team lost its second straight match Wednesday afternoon, falling to the UMBC Retrievers 15-9 in Baltimore, Md. The loss drops the Eagles below the .500 mark on the season at 5-6.
The Eagles were down early, as two goals by Ali Levendusky sandwiched around a tally by Abbey Swift gave the Retrievers a quick 3-0 advantage only three minutes into the game.
AU would get its first point on the scoreboard at the 26:01 mark off of an assist by senior Caithlin Gorman to cut the lead to 3-1.
Following a 4-1 run by UMBC to push the margin to 7-2, AU would try to begin a comeback with a 3-1 run of its own.
AU would get back on the board on a goal by Jackie Lane at the 7:24 mark. This would be followed up in succession with scoring by junior Brittany Finnegan and Gorman at the 4:47 and 0:56 marks respectively to cut UMBC lead down to 7-5.
UMBC would get a last-second goal by Swift, her second of three on the day, just before the half ended to give the Retrievers an 8-5 lead heading into the locker room.
The second half would start just like the first half ended for AU. After Levendusky scored for UMBC only 30 seconds into the period, one of her three goals on the afternoon, AU would go on another 3-1 run to cut the lead back down to two, 9-7. Scoring for the Eagles during this stretch were junior Lauren Aksionoff and sophomores Gina Ibello and Kira Sonberg.
However, this would be as close as the Eagles would get all match as UMBC proved to be too strong throughout the rest of the half.
The Retrievers would get pairs of goals from both Kelly Fahey and Jen Kasper over a five-minute span to push the lead back up to 14-8.
Although Aksionoff and Swift would trade goals in the final minutes, it was not enough for the Eagles as the team fell by a final score of 15-9.
Leading all scorers in the game was UMBC's Jen Kasper, who scored three of her four goals in the second half. Teammates Kelly Fahey, Ali Levendusky and Abbey Swift each recorded three tallies of their own.
For the Eagles, Aksionoff and Sonberg recorded multi-goal days in the losing effort.
Next up for the Eagles is a Patriot League road match against Lafayette on Saturday. The game starts at noon from Easton, Pa.
