The Geneseo women's lacrosse team ended a disappointing stretch of games on Tuesday afternoon, losing to St. Lawrence University, 16-13.
"We really do need a win before the start of conference play," said head coach Carly Ritchlin before Tuesday's loss. The Knights were unable to come up with the victory and are now faced with some early season soul searching.
The Knights fell behind early but bounced back, scoring seven out of eight goals on their way to a 9-4 halftime lead. They did not, however, fare quite as well after the break, as St. Lawrence outscored Geneseo 12-4, including the first four goals of the second half.
Senior Abby Hungerford led the Knights with four goals in the losing effort, along with fellow senior Tara Murphy and junior Casie Damore who netted two goals apiece. Junior Annie Smith made 12 saves in goal for the Knights.
That loss, the team's third straight, puts them in some early turmoil as they begin conference play against Oneonta, New Paltz and Cortland over the next two weeks.
"Overall we're a very talented team, it's just the small things that are working against us right now," Ritchlin said. Small things such as playing consistently for a full 60 minutes, controlling the ball and securing ground balls have been lacking at times this season. "It's been a possession thing," Ritchlin added.
Geneseo's woes began last Thursday in a tough 10-9 loss to the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Knights held a lead at the halfway mark but let it slip away as the Tigers erupted with four straight goals - three in a matter of 20 seconds - to take an 8-7 lead with just over 12 minutes remaining. Hungerford was again the team's top scorer as she netted her fourth goal with 5 minutes, 37 seconds to play, putting the Knights within one goal. They would not be able to score again, though.
"Despite the loss Abby was able to find the back of the net when we really needed it the most," Ritchlin said, who added that she was pleased with her top scorer's performance.
Hungerford, who has tried to fill the shoes of former star Maggie Morris, was the team's high scorer in Saturday's game as well, with five goals against William Smith College, though that game also ended in a loss.
Saturday's loss was a 21-13 beatdown at the hands of the No. 18 ranked Herons, who scored the first 10 goals of the game and never led by less than seven. "We came out completely flat in the first half and ran out of time," Ritchlin said. "It didn't even look like we were ready to play."
With these three losses the Knights have fallen to 2-3 on the season albeit still much too early to panic. "There's a lot of things we're doing really well we just need to fine tune some things and better control the game," Ritchlin said. Geneseo will have a chance to redeem themselves this Friday in their home opener against Oneonta at 4 p.m.