Opening its season against No. 10/12 Ohio State, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team was confronted with quite the wake-up call.
The Bearcats (0-1) fell, 18-5, to the Buckeyes (2-0) on Saturday at Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus, Ohio. While the loss was poignant, competing against a top-notch opponent allowed Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen to better assess her team’s early season progress.
“I think it was a good season opener for us to really gauge the things that we can work on and really help prepare us for a tough conference schedule,” the third-year head coach said. “Ohio State is a very strong team, very physical team, and I think we stepped up and competed with them on Saturday.”
Binghamton’s defense was especially active in the game. Behind junior keeper Erin McNulty, the Bearcat backline stopped 10 shots and picked up 15 ground balls. They also finished 10-for-19 in clears.
On the offensive end, Binghamton couldn’t get much going until the second half. Ohio State came out dominant in the first, posting a 13-1 advantage heading into halftime.
But in the second, the Bearcats nearly kept pace with their hosts, scoring four while allowing just five more goals.
“I think second half we made a few adjustments in our clear, and then our draw control area, so they were able to give us a few more opportunities out on the field and give our defenders a little bit more of a break,” Allen said.
Four different Bearcats contributed to scoring in the game, including sophomore attack Brianne Arthur and senior midfielder Renee Kiviat. Those two led BU in scoring in 2013 with 34 and 21 goals on the season, respectively.
“Our focus is on distributing the ball well across the entire offensive unit and it’s exciting to see a number of different individuals scoring out there and also coming up with the ball off of the draw control,” Allen said.
Arthur got things started for BU with a late goal in the first half, making the score 6-1 before the Buckeyes pulled out seven more in the half.
The Buckeyes came out hot again after the break, netting an unassisted goal in the first minute and adding another score three minutes later. Binghamton pieced together a response with 24:27 left on the clock, when sophomore attack Samantha Karner passed to freshman midfielder Tiffany Ryan, who scored her first career goal in the green and white.
OSU notched another before Binghamton rallied for a 3-0 run in the middle of the second half. Karner incited the run with an unassisted goal, and Kiviat and Ryan finished out scoring for Binghamton to make the score 16-5. The Buckeyes weren’t done yet, though, and they scored two more to take a generous 18-5 victory.
Despite holding a heavy advantage in shots, 33-9, the Buckeyes only barely ousted Binghamton in draw controls, 13-12.
On OSU’s side, three Buckeyes recorded hat-tricks. Sophomore attack Cian Dabrowski led with six points off three goals and three assists. Junior attack Rainey Hodgson contributed five goals, and senior attack Katie Chase netted four.
The Bearcats have a long break until their next game, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24 against Niagara University. Face-off is set for 3 p.m. in Niagara Falls.