PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - Despite a second half surge that saw the Wilmington University women's lacrosse team get within as few as two goals, the Wildcats dropped a tough Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference matchup at Philadelphia University, 17-13, on Tuesday afternoon at Ravenhill Field.
Wilmington (8-5, 5-4 CACC) saw its two game winning streak come to a close and is now tied with the Rams (6-8, 5-4 CACC) in third place in the CACC standings. Philadelphia holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wildcats, however, as they won both games of the season series. The top four teams at the end of the regular season advance to the CACC Tournament starting on May 5.
Leading 5-4 with 14:25 to play in the first half, the Wildcats saw the home team rattle off five straight goals to head into the halftime break leading 9-5. The Rams also scored the first two goals of the second half, bringing the margin to six with 22:32 to play in regulation; the largest of the afternoon.
That is when the Wildcats turn on the jets and got back into the ball game with five of the next six goals to cut the deficit to two goals with less than 15 minutes to play.
Freshman Megan Keffer started the rally by scoring her only goal of the game with 22:08 showing on the scoreboard. Her unassisted tally put the score at 11-6. Jaclyn Hall cut into the lead even more with back-to-back goals, scoring the first goal off a nice feed from Liz Case, to make the Ram lead 11-8 with 18:31 to play in the second half.
Following a Ram goal by Emily Ray, Wilmington tallied the next two goals, bringing it to the closest it has been since the five minute mark of the first half. Freshman Ashley Kroll got on the board with her first goal of the game at the 16:27 mark before classmate Rebekah McCurry tallied her first goal of the game 1:30 later off a pass from Jess Graybeal to bring the score to 12-10 in favor of the home team with 14:43 left in the game.
But Philadelphia retaliated with a goal spurt of its own, scoring the game's next four goals to put a damper on the comeback bid by the Wildcats. The back-breaker might have been the very first goal of the run, as Philadelphia took the ensuing draw control and scored within 15 seconds of Wilmington's last goal to put the Rams ahead by three.
McCurry and Kroll tried to get the 'Cats back in it once again in the final five minutes, as the freshmen duo scored three straight goals with 52 seconds remaining to make it 16-13, but time was not on their side as the Wildcats dropped the hard fought game.
The Wildcats outshot the Rams in the second half, 15-12, but fell in the same department for the whole game, 34-25. The Wildcats also won the game on the ground, picking up one more ground ball, 21-20.
Case, Jaclyn Hall and McCurry led the team by each recording a hat trick. Case added two assists to lead the team with five points. Kroll put in two late goals in the game and added an assist for three points. Keffer and Molly Taylor rounded out the Wilmington goal scorers.
Kaitlyn Hall recorded six saves in goal for the Wildcats while counterpart Erin Wright made eight stops in the cage for the Rams.
The Wildcats will look to rebound on Thursday, playing another tough CACC game on the road. Wilmington will head to CACC leading Holy Family (9-4, 8-1 CACC) for a 4:00 p.m. start. The Tigers lone CACC loss came at the hands of the Wildcats back on March 20.