RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The Manhattan women's lacrosse team gave up seven unanswered goals to finish the first period and could not mount a comeback in a 17-11 loss to Bucknell Tuesday afternoon at Graham Field.
In their last non-conference game of the season, the Lady Jaspers (4-8) got on the board first but gave up nine of the next 10 goals to dig themselves into an insurmountable hole and drop their final road contest of the season.
Junior attacker Chrissy Gutenberger led Manhattan with four goals, senior midfielder Tara Convery chipped in with two. Coming up big for the Bison (3-11), attacker Madison Hurwitz led all players with six tallies while teammate Ali Carey added four.
Opening the contest with the lead, the Lady Jaspers made it 1-0 when Gutenberger scored on an unassisted tally at the 29:10 mark of the first. After Carey and Hurwitz gave the Bison a 2-1 advantage on back-to-back scores with 23:01 left in the first period, freshman midfielder Kelsey Rehain answered to make it 2-all at 19:24.
From there Bucknell went on a run. Behind a pair of goals from Katelyn Miller and Hurwitz, the home team surged out to a 9-2 lead with seven consecutive scores to put Manhattan in a serious deficit with 1:30 left in the first. Junior Elizabeth Dugan would net a goal before the half to trim the deficit by one but after 30 minutes of play the Bison led by a score of 9-3.
Starting the second period off on a good note, Manhattan got two back on goals by Convery and Gutenbeger to trim the disadvantage to 9-5 with 27:21 left in the contest. However, Bucknell would put a stop to the rally, scoring seven of the next ten goals over a 23-minute span to go up 16-8 with 4:45 remaining in the game.
Senior midfielder Phelicia VanOverbeke and attacker Julia Lavelle each recorded goals in the closing minutes but it would not be enough as the Lady Jaspers fell by a six-goal margin.
Between the pipes, goalkeeper Alyssa DeLorenz made a game-high 22 saves in the win while Manhattan sophomore Julia DiBernardo recorded eight saves in the defeat.
Overall, the Lady Jaspers led the way in shots (37-32) and draw controls (21-9), with the Bison holding advantages in ground balls (20-11), clears (23-15) and free-position opportunities (3-6/1-8)
Manhattan returns to Riverdale this weekend for their final MAAC contests of the 2011 season. First on the docket is a meeting with conference-leader Fairfield Friday evening at Gaelic Park. Opening draw for the contest is set for 7 p.m.
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