The Oswego State women's lacrosse team opened its 2016 season with a close 9-7 loss at Clarkson University on Wednesday afternoon at Hantz Turf Field. Clarkson improves to 1-1 with the win while the Lakers go to 0-1.
Oswego outscored the Golden Knights 5-4 in the second half, including the game's final three tallies, but were unable to overcome a 5-2 halftime deficit. Clarkson scored the contest's first two goals before Lindsey Eggers found the back of the net off an Esther Gabriel assist. The two squads then traded goals, with Oswego's coming on an unassisted Briana Kimble notch, making it 3-2 with 11:52 left in the first half. Clarkson would find two more goals before the break to take the 5-2 advantage into the locker room.
Kimble scored the Lakers' first goal of the second half in unassisted fashion before Teresa Shattuck recorded her first collegiate point with an unassisted goal of her own. After two more Clarkson goals made it 9-4, Kimble, Emily Lange and Gemma O'Kane rattled off three goals in a 2:12 span to close the gap to just two. T. Shattuck assisted Kimble's goal while Erannan Shattuck registered the helper on Lange's.
Neither team was able to score in the final 2:20, as Clarkson held off the Lakers' comeback effort.
O'Kane, Gabriel and goalie Angela Ponto each finished with a team-high two groundballs. Lange paced the team with three draw controls while Gabriel, T. Shattuck and Nicole Granteed each won two. Danielle Walker had a Laker-best two caused turnovers, with T. Shattuck and Eggers both chipping in one.
Ponto took the loss in net despite making eight saves on 17 Golden Knight shots-on-goal.
Oswego will look to capture its first win of the new season when it hosts Rochester Institute of Technology at 1 p.m. on Saturday. That game will be the women's lacrosse team's first-ever contest in Laker Turf Stadium.
