On Saturday afternoon, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team struggled in their faceoff against the Vermont Catamounts. After a five-goal barrage to end the first half for the Catamounts, they continued to hold onto their lead for the rest of the game, while the Bearcats struggled to recover. The game ultimately ended in a defeat for the Bearcats with a score of 17-10.

“I think Vermont came out today and played a really strong game,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “They’ve got good speed out there and certainly good shooters, but I think there’s certainly some areas that we beat ourselves today that kind of made that deficit larger.”

BU (1-2, 1-2 AE) started off strong in the first half, scoring the first two goals of the game. The Bearcats and the Catamounts (3-1, 3-0 AE) went back and forth exchanging goals until the last 11 minutes of the first half, where Vermont scored five unanswered goals, taking an 11-6 lead into the locker room.

An improved second half followed for the Bearcats, who kept a tighter defensive line against Vermont’s potent offense. Around the 16th minute of the second half, junior attack Emily Masera was able to end Vermont’s seven-goal run with a goal of her own, cutting the deficit to 13-7. The Bearcats then scored three more goals, with the final coming from Masera, who recorded a hat-trick on the day. Although Vermont still managed to build an ultimately insurmountable lead by halftime, the Bearcats only conceded six goals in the second half, compared to the 11 given up in the first half.

Senior attack Paige Volkmann scored two goals, putting her at a team-high 10 goals for the season. Meanwhile, freshman midfielder Madison Murphy netted one goal in the game and has now recorded eight goals in the season. Both Volkmann and Murphy have scored in every game this season.

“I think when [Volkmann and Murphy] stuck with the game plan and got themselves in the positions that we practiced throughout the week, they found success,” Allen said. “Unfortunately we just weren’t consistent with that and just took way too long to get ourselves in successful positions on the offensive end.”

In addition to the work done by Volkmann and Murphy on offense, senior midfielder Alyssa Sanchez helped on the defensive end, picking up five ground balls. Sophomore attack Rebecca Korn and Murphy also picked up three ground balls each in the loss.

“I think we just need to compete at a higher level in practice every single day,” Allen said. “We can’t just show up a few days out of every week in preparation. We’ve got to show up five days ahead of that game and really compete at game speed, game level, game physicality.”

Next weekend, the Bearcats will take on UMBC on Saturday, March 27. First draw control is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.