Despite getting on the board first, Binghamton women’s lacrosse team fell to Canisius 13-7 after the Golden Griffins used two prolonged runs to push past BU at the Bearcats Sports Complex on Saturday.
“We didn’t execute many levels of our game plan,” Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen said. “Communication and hustle are two things that we can control, and [we] fell short of both of those areas this past weekend.”
Binghamton (0-3) was led by junior attack Angela Vespa, a transfer from Onondaga Community College, who recorded her first career hat trick as a Bearcat on Saturday. Vespa scored the first goal of the game to give BU an early lead with 25:36 left in the first half, but Canisius (1-2) responded with five unreciprocated goals to close out the half with a 5-1 advantage.
Binghamton senior midfielder Katherine Hunsberger scored just three minutes into the second half, but Canisius again responded with a goal of its own to extend their lead to 6-2.
Goals by Vespa and senior attack Kimberly McGeever sandwiched another Golden Griffin goal, cutting the deficit to 7-4. But Canisius answered Binghamton’s push with six-consecutive goals to put the game on ice.
The Bearcats compiled a late run of their own by scoring three-straight goals in the last three minutes to put the final score at 13-7. Vespa, sophomore attack/midfielder Alex Fisher and freshman midfielder Allie Rodgers scored during the stretch.
“I think we went out there and were able to identify some matchups in the second half and exploit those matchups, but just couldn’t get the tempo that we wanted set in the first half for our shot that we were hoping to generate,” Allen said.
The head coach said Vespa was a bright spot in the loss.
“Angela did a nice job for us this weekend,” she said. “[We] had the ball moving through her a lot more in the second half. She was able to put herself in position to get different looks on kids that kept us moving back in the right direction as far as the score went, but just a little bit too late.”
Canisius outshot Binghamton 32-17 and held a 28-13 advantage on groundballs. The Bearcats turned the ball over 24 times while forcing 16 turnovers.
The Bearcats are set to return to game action on Wednesday against Marist, which is 0-4 this season.
“[We] are looking forward to making … adjustments in practices the next two days and being prepared to take on Marist Wednesday,” Allen said. “We are just going to take it one game at a time.”
Face-off is set for 4 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.