The Shepherd University women’s lacrosse team faced its toughest competition of the season thus far when they traveled to Lock Haven, Penn. to take on the number 8 Lock Haven Bald Eagles. It was a disappointing performance for the Shepherd women as Lock Haven dominated from start to finish. Lock Haven’s Jessica Pandolf scored seven goals and added an assist to help pace the eighth-ranked team in the country past the Lady Rams by a final tally of 20–5.
Shepherd could not stop the scoring spree from Lock Haven. Lindsay Walbrandt, Kelly Hamilton and Chelsea Borrino each added hat tricks to the Lock Haven cause. The game may have been already decided by halftime when Lock Haven held a 14–1 advantage going into the interval.
Sophomore attacker Hunter Morris was able to lead the way in terms of offense for the Lady Rams, picking up two goals. Senior midfielder Jenny Cavey, sophomore midfielder Erin Phelan, as well as junior attack Kelsey Eagan each had a goal in the game.
The Lady Rams were looking to bounce back quickly from the loss as they returned home to take on Notre Dame College Saturday morning. The game was an absolute thriller, and it took Shepherd two overtimes to avoid a two-game losing streak.
Senior midfielder Cavey scored her second goal of the game on an assist from junior attack Georgia Karr with 2:06 remaining in the second overtime to defeat Notre Dame 19–18. Senior midfielder Christina Ferrara led the way in scoring for the Lady Rams with six goals.
Sophomore attacker Morris and junior attacker Eagan each scored three goals for Shepherd. Karr also scored three goals for the Rams to go along with a game high four assists. Junior defender Alyx Albano had a very well-rounded defensive performance with 10 ground balls, seven draw controls and forced seven turnovers.
Notre Dame took the lead during the early parts of the contest, coming out of the locker room and scoring the first four goals. Shepherd was able to get their offense in order and trailed 9–8 going into halftime.
Shepherd trailed by three goals fairly late in the game before the Lady Rams were able to string together four consecutive goals. Shepherd took the 17–16 lead, courtesy of an unassisted goal notched by Ferrara. Notre Dame responded with a Kelly Matthewmann goal with just 36 seconds remaining in regulation. Brooke Czarnecki scored the game-winning goal at the end of regulation, but the officials ruled it came after the horn. Cavey proved to score the vital goal that saw Shepherd emerge victorious.
The win improved Shepherd’s record to 8–5 on the season. The Rams return to action on Thursday when they travel to Shorter for a 6 p.m. face-off.