The Binghamton women’s lacrosse team left it all on the field in a bittersweet finale against Canisius on Saturday, but ultimately lost its final game of the season, 12-8, at home. The Bearcats (6-11, 1-5 America East), however, proved to be a tougher opponent than their record showed against the Golden Griffins (12-5, 8-0 Mid-Atlantic), the MAAC regular season champions.
“I [thought] that our defensive performance in the first half today was outstanding, something that we really were able to hang our hats on,” BU head coach Stephanie Allen said. “[The defense was] able to give us a couple extra offensive possessions in the second half just based off of plays and caused turnovers.”
It didn’t take long for the Bearcats to turn a possession into a goal. Sophomore attack Brianne Arthur notched her 23rd goal of the season to open the scoring. But even in a half that favored BU in shots by a 10-9 margin, Arthur’s goal was Binghamton’s only score in the first 30. A tough Canisius defense prevented good shot opportunities, and when Binghamton did find space, the offense failed to generate the momentum to finish.
“This [finishing] is something that we’ve been struggling with all season and just taking care of our shot selection,” Allen said. “We still haven’t clicked offensively.”
Within three minutes of Arthur’s goal, Canisius scored twice to force the first and only lead change of the day, 2-1. After a third goal by the Griffins, scoring on both sides stopped, and the Bearcats faced a manageable 3-1 deficit entering the second half.
That’s when the Golden Griffins took off.
Canisius opened the second half with seven straight goals, upping the margin to 10-1. BU’s scoring drought did not end until midway through the second, when junior attack Sophia Racciatti scored her 20th goal of the year. Shortly after, freshman attack Tiffany Ryan began to turn the tides on the Canisius momentum with a score of her own. After a yellow card given to the Golden Griffins, Arthur added her second goal of the game on a free-position attempt to cut the lead to 10-4.
A BU timeout with about seven minutes remaining ignited the offense once more and set the stage for two seniors, midfielder Renee Kiviat and attack Brianna Russo, to find the back of the net one final time to push the clip, 11-7. Following a third goal by Arthur to put the team within three with 49 seconds remaining, BU refused to let off the gas pedal. But Canisius put the nail in the coffin with 15 seconds remaining, securing a 12-8 victory.
In a milestone for Binghamton in the loss, junior defender Allie Rodgers caused two turnovers to give her 26 for the season, a BU record.
“[Rodgers] has been able to find a niche down there and she gives us a lot of extra opportunities with the ball,” Allen said. “We couldn’t be more proud of her work ethic, and more importantly her game play this season and we’re hoping she can get some accolades.”
The loss wraps up the 2015 Binghamton season with six wins, good enough for the second-best finish in program history.