VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Longwood women's lacrosse team was unable to hold off a late Villanova run in final minutes, falling 15-13 to the Wildcats Friday evening. The Lancers fall to 1-8 on the season while Villanova improves to 3-5 on the year. Longwood will return to action on Sunday, April 1, when they travel to Lafayette for a 12 p.m. contest.

The Wildcats carried the play in the game's opening minutes, scoring three goals in the first nine minutes to build an early 3-0 cushion. But the Lancers tallied six of the next seven scores in just six minutes, with three of those coming off the stick of Shannon Strain/Alexandria (Mount Vernon). Taryn McKenna netted a goal off a free position shot at 15:07 to halt the Longwood surge. McKenna's goal was followed by another Wildcat score by Erica Rybinski to knot the game at six with 14:35 left.

Led by Cathleen Strain's/Alexandria (Mount Vernon) two goals, Longwood scored three of the next four to build a 9-7 advantage with 6:04 left in the first period. Rybinski answered with an unassisted score at 1:12 to close the gap to 9-8 at intermission.

Villanova duplicated its fast start in the second half, again netting the first three scores of the period on goals from Meg Wallace, Taylor Lucy and Shannon Sullivan to construct an 11-9 lead. The Lancers drew to within a goal on a Shannon Strain score before Villanova's Christina Bahrs answered at 24:13 to make it 12-10. Liz Sellmayer/Baltimore, Md. (Mount de Sales Academy) put a shot past the Wildcats' goalie for the Lancers, cutting the margin to 12-11 before Villanova got goals from Lucy and Wallace to build a 14-11 lead with 14:47 left.

The Lancers scored twice to narrow the gap to one with 10:44 to go but were unable to net the equalizer. McKenna gave the Wildcats some breathing room by scoring with 47 seconds left in regulation to make the final 15-13.

Jennifer Holliday/Gaithersburg, Md. (Quince Orchard) recorded the loss in net for Longwood making four saves, while surrendering nine goals in 32:01 of action. Eliza Coughter/Charlottesville (Charlotteseville) saw 27:59 of action between the pipes, making three saves and allowing six goals. Shannon Strain led Longwood with four goals on the day while Cathleen Strain added three.

2007-03-30