PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - A five-goal run midway through the second half pushed Jefferson past the Wilmington University women's lacrosse team in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opener on Tuesday afternoon at Ravenhill Field.
Back-to-back goals brought the Wildcats (3-6, 0-1 CACC) to within 8-7 with 23:54 left in regulation, but the Rams (2-3, 1-0 CACC) scored five consecutive goals over a stretch of 10 minutes and 20 seconds of game time to stretch their lead out to 13-7. It would be too much for the Wildcats to recover from.
Jefferson jumped out to leads of 1-0 and 3-1 before the Wildcats took the lead with back-to-back-to-back goals from Taylor Lambeth, Maddie Day, and Lashay Ross in the first half, 4-3, with 14:25 left in the half. But the Rams rattled off the next four goals before the Wildcats scored the final goal of the half to go into the break trailing, 7-5.
Jefferson scored the first goal out of the break before Maris Allen and Alexis Miller each scored on free position shots to bring the Wildcats to within 8-7 with 23:54 to play.
But the Rams scored five straight, including a man-down goal, to stretch the lead out to 13-7 with 11:12 left in regulation.
Delaney Steele would break the streak with a free position shot with 10:37 left, and Maddie Day scored to get the Wildcats to within 13-9 with 9:52 showing on the clock.
But the Wildcats didn't record their next shot until the 2:54 mark and only had one more shot in the game, a goal by Brooke Siebert with five seconds left, before time ran out.
Taylor Lambeth, Lashay Ross, and Maddie Day led the team with two goals each while Ross added five draws and two ground balls. Brooke Siebert led the team with six draw controls while Hannah Tornatore led the way with three ground balls.
Maddie Hurm made seven saves in the first half while Tori Grubowski made seven saves in the second half.
The Wildcats travel to Dominican on Saturday to take part in another CACC contest. They play under the lights with the opening draw scheduled for 6:00 p.m.