The women’s lacrosse team dropped their season opener at home, which due to the snow was played on Yale’s field hockey/lacrosse complex, to the University of Vermont in the fourth overtime, by a score of 11-10. The UVM Catamount’s Susan Talbot scored the winning goal with :55.9 left in the fourth overtime.
Bobcat junior Danielle Mormile scored the first goal of the game with 28:27 left in the half. Catamount sophomore Ahleigh Wilson tied the game 20:06 left. Bobcat freshman Katy Delagi scored with 19:16 remaining, making it 2-1. Catamount senior Vanessa Cox gave UVM its first lead at 17:13 left in the period. Senior Bobcat Kate Danowski scored with 8:44 remaining to tie the game 4-4.
After the Catamounts scored the next goal, Mormile and senior Christy Smallman scored a couple of their own. At the half, the score was 6-5 in favor of the Bobcats.
Talbot scored the first goal of the second half with 26:56, tying the game again at 6. Danowski, Mormile, and Larson scored goals giving the Bobcats a 9-7 lead. The Catamount’s Ashleigh Wilson scored with 13:43 left and Becky Kenison scored with 12:58 left, tying the game. The Catamounts’ Jen Weinrich gave UVM the lead with a goal at 9:41 left. With only 1:54 left in the half, Bobcat senior Amy Willis tied the game, sending the game into overtime. With the goal, along with an earlier assist of Larson’s second goal, Willis is only one point away from 100 career points. The game had four overtimes. With just 56 seconds left in the fourth overtime, Talbot scored the winning goal, unassisted. UVM won 11-10.
“We were all over the field. We took three shots that didn’t go in. The other team shot one that did go in. We gave 110 percent.” Samras said. “Nothing really surprised me out there, both teams were going at it. It was a fight to the death. Vermont got the last goal.”
Samaras said that playing at Yale, “takes a little off of home field advantage. It’s better to play at Quinnipiac but we’ve played at Yale before, it didn’t take that that much off of home field advantage.”
The Bobcats came into their first game with Sacred Heart, from their conference, already having played two games and winning both, Samaras said.
“We don’t worry ourselves about Sacred Heart. We have four big games against them coming up. They are big rivals and they’re always in the back of our mind.”
The game came after a recent Pre-season poll, in which the lacrosse team was chosen to place third in the Northeast Conference this year. The top four schools get into the NEC play-offs. If the Bobcats finish the season in third place, it would be the second straight season ending in the No. 3 slot.
Samaras said the ranking was “pretty exciting. It’s our highest preseason poll ranking and I hope it gets the girls excited this weekend against Vermont.” She continued, “I hope this becomes a positive. We have also been No. 1 by pre-season polls that I don’t pay that much attention to. This ranking lets the girls relax a bit. It lets them know that we’re not just chasing [other teams] We’re doing some chasing and being chased ourselves.”
The Bobcats next game is in Providence, R.I., against Brown University on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
