April 12, 2008

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Chelsea Peters (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) recorded her first hat trick of the season and Carol Donohue (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) had four more points with two goals and two assists, but Bucknell could not slow down the nation's third-highest scoring team and fell to Navy 18-11 in a Patriot League women's lacrosse game Saturday at rain-soaked Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Sarah Collins (Goldens Bridge, N.Y./John Jay) had a goal and three assists and freshman Julia Braun (Tomkins Cove, N.Y./North Rockland) also scored three goals, but the Bison dropped their third game in a row and fell to 5-6 overall and 1-4 in the Patriot League.

Navy (10-3, 3-2), in its first season at the varsity level, came in averaging just over 16 goals per game, and they added to that average on Saturday thanks to six goals from Katrina Nietsch and four goals and an assist from Meg Decker. Erin Rawlick added three goals and two assists for the Mids, who can lock up a Patriot League Tournament berth with a victory over winless Lafayette next week.

In a game played in a continuous downpour, Bucknell got off to a great start, as Donohue, Peters and Braun all scored in the first 2:20. It was still a 3-0 game 10 minutes in before Navy replied with four straight goals to take its first lead of the day.

But Bucknell went back in front with another three-goal run. Donohue's unassisted tally tied it at 4-4, then Paige Kasschau (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) and Braun scored just 11 seconds apart to make it a 6-4 game.

The roller-coaster half ended with Navy scoring three times in 36 seconds. Rawlick scored with 1:49 to play, then Nietsch scored two in a row to give the Mids a 7-6 lead at intermission.

Rawlick tallied 11 seconds after the opening draw, iginiting an 11-goal second-half for Navy. Peters brought Bucknell within 9-7, but Amanda Towey answered 1:17 later to start a 4-0 Navy run. Rawlilck's third of the day and 49th of the season made it 13-7, and the Mids led by at least five goals the rest of the way.

Navy outshot Bucknell 26-24 and held a 14-12 edge in ground balls. Both teams had 16 turnovers.

Donohue now has four or more points in nine of 11 games this season. She now has 25 assists, third-most in school history and two shy of Meredith Wright's school record. Her 53 points are fifth-most all-time, nine away from Sue Gray's 24-year-old program record.

Bucknell is back in action on Tuesday with a non-league game at Wagner at 4 p.m.