The SUNY Old Westbury women’s lacrosse team fell behind early, and continued to push back throughout the game until falling 13-11 to the Purchase Panthers in Monday’s Skyline Conference opener from Mitchel Field in Uniondale, New York. With the loss, Old Westbury moves to 1-4 while Purchase remained perfect at 5-0.
Samantha Rich netted three goals and Zoe Hines scored two more to put Purchase ahead with a 5-0 lead through the opening 10:48. Emily Powell and Courtney Gallagher tallied back-to-back goals in a 12 second span to make it a 5-2 game. Following a Kelly Turtell goal, Old Westbury answered with goals by Gabriella DiPierno, Danielle Weir, Sara Bey and Powell to knot the game at 6-6 with 3:04 remaining. Purchase added three-straight goals before Powell netted her third goal of the game as time expired in the first half to make it a 9-7 contest at the break.
Purchased used a 3-0 run to open the second half to grab a 12-7 lead with 14:15 remaining. Sara Bey found Halle Johnson at 12:51 to stop Purchase’s run. Hines then totaled her sixth goal of the game at the 7:07 mark to close out Purchase’s scoring with a 13-8 advantage. Bey would dish out her third assist of the season (career high) when DiPierno ripped nylon at 6:47 to close the deficit to four goals (13-9). Weir (1:49) and Gallagher (1:08) each scored late goals to make it a two-goal game, but were not enough to overcome Purchase’s first-half scoring output.
Ashley Gugliuzzo (1-4) tied a career-high with nine saves in defeat for Old Westbury. Gallagher scooped up a game-high five ground balls (tied career-high) to go along with a career-best five caused turnovers. Bey and Wier each followed with three ground balls. Bey’s two helpers placed her in the company of Jessica Walker and Maria Dischley as Old Westbury’s single-game assist record holders.
Caitlin Sosa (5-0) made four saves to earn Purchase’s win.
Drew’s Nikki Kleiman led all scorers with four goals and two assists as Krysta Cento racked up five draw controls.
In the end, Drew held the advantage in shots (30-16), shots on goal (25-14) and ground balls (20-18) while Old Westbury finished with a 14-11 edge in draw controls.
