PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.— The Keene State College women's lacrosse team took on Worcester State University for their second game in as many games on their spring break trip on Thursday morning. After the Owls took a 6-1 lead after the first quarter, the Lancers doubled up the Owls the rest of the way, 16-8, for a 17-14 win on the day.

Records

• Keene State: 4-3
• Worcester State: 5-3

How it Happened


The Owls got off to their best start to a game of the season against the Lancers, as they won the first five draw controls, which resulted in scoring five goals in the first 5:03 of play, before the Lancers were able to score their first goal, nearly four minutes later. Tess Brown got the Owls on the board with a free position goal, 53 seconds into the contest, and then tallied another point from an assist, 41 seconds later, on Mindy St. Marie's goal for KSC. The next three goals for KSC were all free position goals, as Haile Ratajack, Annaliese Rudberg, and Amethyst Phelps each scored for the Owls. With 5:06 remaining in the opening quarter, the Lancers scored a free position goal of their own, as Hannah Erickson scored. Ratajack scored the final goal of the opening quarter, with 1:35 left, to give KSC a 6-1 lead heading into the second.
 
Ratajack scored her third goal of the contest to open the scoring in the second quarter, 2:56 into it, thanks to a caused turnover from St. Marie on defense for KSC. WSU tallied three goals in response to Ratajack's, with Erickson netting another free position goal, followed by a man-up free position goal from Madigan Kelly, and a goal from Molly Witkowski just 18 seconds later to cut the Owls lead to three. KSC increased their lead back to four with a goal from Brown on a free position shot with 4:28 remaining in the quarter. Just as they did earlier in the quarter, the Lancers went on a three-goal run in 1:20 towards the end of the first half, as Abigail Wing scored a pair of goals and Witkowski scored the other, to bring the score at halftime to 8-7 for KSC.
 
Worcester State took advantage of the yellow card called against the Owls at the end of the first half, as Mckayla Fisher scored a man-up goal for the Lancers to knot the game up at eight apiece, just 43 seconds into the half. Ratajack responded to Fisher's goal with a man-up goal from Hayden Smith 49 seconds later, to put the Owls back ahead. The Owls' 9-8 lead ended up being the last lead that they held the remainder of the game, as WSU scored a pair of goals, one from Shea Jarvis and the other, a free position goal, from Erickson to put them ahead 10-9. Although Hannah Dworkin scored her first goal of the season with 7:07 remaining in the third to even the game up at 10 apiece, the Lancers answered right back by scoring three consecutive goals for the third time in the game, as Jarvis tallied a pair of goals and Kelley netted a free position goal to put WSU up 13-10 with 4:02 left to play in the third. Mabelle Bessette made a save in net for the Owls on WSU's last shot attempt of the quarter, which led to Dworkin assisting Ratajack on the final goal in the third, with just 13 seconds left, bringing the Owls within a pair heading into the final 15 minutes of regulation.
 
Wing opened the scoring on a free-position goal, 1:20 into the final quarter to put the Lancers back up by three as they tried to hold on for the win. The Owls were able to pull within a goal as Brown won the ensuing draw control and eventually scored the Owls' 12th goal, followed by Elle Lyons causing a turnover on the defensive end for KSC, which led to Brown assisting St. Marie, making the score 14-13 for the Lancers as the Owls tried to mount a comeback and tie the game up at 14. WSU shut down the KSC comeback attempt, as for the fourth time in the game, they scored three consecutive goals; Jarvis scored the 15th goal for the Lancers (from Witkowski), followed by a man-up goal from Erickson (assisted by Jarvis), and a man-down goal from Witkowski, putting the Lancers up 17-13 with 6:26 remaining. Bessette saved the final three shot attempts from WSU, including one free position shot but the Owls' offense was only able to score one more goal through the remainder of the game, as Chase Gengras assisted on Ratajack's sixth goal, bringing the final score to 17-14 for Worcester State.
 
Inside the Crease

• With the loss, the Owls fall to 0-3 in the all-time series against Worcester State. KSC has been outscored 42-33 across the three games.
• Ratajack led the Owls on the attack, scoring a game-high of six goals in the contest, along with helping on defense as she tallied a game-high of three caused turnovers.
• With her six goals in the game, Ratajack is now tied for the fifth-most points in a career in Keene State women's lacrosse program history, with 231 career points (187 goals, 44 assists). It also moved her into second place all-time in career goals in program history, with 187 goals.
• Sarah Howe started in net for the Owls and made three saves while allowing seven goals, while Bessette entered at halftime and made six saves while allowing 10 goals.
• The Owls were perfect on their free position shot attempts, as they went 5-5, compared to 6-10 from the Lancers.
• KSC had the advantage on draw controls, as they won 19, compared to 15 from WSU, and had a slightly better clear percentage, going 18-22 (81.8%), while WSU went 16-20 (80%).

 
Up Next

Keene State's next game will be against New England College at home on Thursday, March 28, at 6:30 PM.
Worcester State's next game will also be on Thursday, March 28, but at 6:00 PM, as they will host Johnson & Wales University (R.I.).