ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's lacrosse team could not overcome an early deficit against fellow Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) school, Hope College on Wednesday afternoon, ultimately dropping the game by a score of 14-12.
The Thunder (6-3, 1-1 MIAA) tallied 19 groundballs compared to 14 for the Flying Dutch (6-5, 1-1 MIAA), but were outshot 34-24 in the game and Hope held a draw control advantage of 18-12.
The Flying Dutch forced head coach Kevin Cooke into a quick timeout after going ahead 4-0 with 8:34 remaining in the first quarter. The break was effective for the home team to regroup, as Trine would rattle off two unanswered and kept Hope off the board for the remainder of the period. Freshman Calista Richmond [Portage, Mich. / Portage] and junior Ella Dougherty [Lowell, Mich. / Lowell] were able to find the back of the net.
The Thunder fought all the way back to tie the game up at five when Liv Ghent [Byron Center, Mich. / Caledonia] found Danielle Gargiulo [Downers Grove, Ill. / Downers Grove] for a goal and scored twice herself. The Flying Dutch claimed a 6-5 lead after a goal with 28 seconds left in the first half.
Trine topped Hope in the third quarter by a 3-2 score as well as the game remained tied at 8-8 heading into the final 15 minutes. Dougherty and Gargiulo gave the Thunder their first lead of the game and Alyssa Keptner [Midland, Mich. / H.H. Dow] netted her first goal of the game for the team's eighth.
The Flying Dutch rattled off five of the next seven goals to take a 13-10 lead late in the game, but with 2:20 to play, Brooke Hoag [Portage, Mich. / Portage] provided a spark offensively. 21 seconds later, Ghent found Gargiulo again to make it a one-goal game at 13-12 with under two minutes left. Hope would bleed the entire shot clock dry and seal the win with a goal at the 31-second mark.
"The exciting part right now is that, even though Liv [Ghent] is an interictal part of what we do, we are also finding other ways to score," Coach Cooke remarked postgame. "whether through assists or other cutters. We can't spot teams four goals, but it goes to show we can battle. I was pleased with the team defense that we played."
Goalie Jillian Rejczyk [Wauconda, Ill. / Wauconda] made eight saves on 22 shots on goal and picked up five groundballs to lead the team. Hoag corralled 6-of-12 draw controls.
Up next for Trine women's lacrosse is a road matchup with Kalamazoo College on Saturday, April 16 at 1 pm.
