Roadrunners fall to the Dutchmen in season’s first game

Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics

The Ramapo College women’s lacrosse team traveled to Annville, PA to take on the Lebanon Valley College Flying Dutchman this past Saturday. Unfortunately, the Roadrunners fell to the Dutchmen 16-5, starting the season with a 0-1 record while the Dutchmen improve to 2-1 overall. 

Freshman Shannon Eagan put Ramapo on the board early in the first half. Eagan recorded the first goal of her lacrosse career as a Roadrunner after senior captain Colleen Manley passed to her for her first assist of the season. The goal came with 28:48 left on the clock in the first half. Lebanon Valley College came back three minutes later (25:31) to add one of their own, tying the game up. With less than 19 minutes left in the half, LVC tacked two more onto the scoreboard to go ahead 3-1. Ramapo, refusing to back down, battled back when Eagan, yet again, scored her second goal (13:50) of the game to come within one off a pass from sophomore Nicole Jaskot before senior captain Alyssa Tachon notched her first goal of the year, unassisted to tie the game 3-3 with 12:16 on the clock. However, LVC took a 5-3 lead with under three minutes left in the first half after scoring back-to-back goals. Heading off of the field after the first half, LVC held an 11-8 lead in shots in the first half while they picked up nine ground balls to Ramapo's eight. Each goalie posted four saves in the first half.

Ramapo was first to score in the second half as well, when sophomore Ava Rinaldi netted her first goal of the season to put the Roadrunners within one 4-5. Two minutes later, LVC added two more goals, and then scored off of a free position shot for a 7-4 lead with 25 minutes left of play, followed immediately by back-to-back goals to make the score 9-4 with 21 minutes left in the game. The Dutchmen increased their lead 12-4 until junior captain Molly Warner recorded her first goal of the season off of a pass from Rinaldi to improve Ramapo’s score 5-12 with 18 minutes on the clock. LVC continued to add more goals as well as score off of another free position. The last goal of the game from the Dutchmen came with 16 minutes on the clock, in which they recorded the 16-5 non-conference victory over Ramapo.

“I think that we have improved a lot from last year under new coaching and with diligent practice and training on working together as a team, however we still have things that we need to improve,” said Manley. “We are without a doubt going to use this loss as motivation to work even harder at practice and improve overall as a team.”

LVC held a 31-18 advantage in shots in the game. Senior goalie Monica Bubello collected eight saves in the cage for Ramapo, four in each half.

The Roadrunners were set to return to action on Wednesday, March 7th when they were scheduled to host Regis College in a non-conference game at 3pm on the Athletic Center Turf Field. Due to inclement weather, the game will be rescheduled for another date and time, which can be found on the Ramapo Athletics website. 

 

khueston@ramapo.edu