Bulldogs surge but fall short, 11-8

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University women's lacrosse team scored six second-half goals and pulled within one late in the closing frame, but the effort would not be enough as the Bulldogs fell on the road at Holy Cross, 11-8, Tuesday afternoon.

Rookie Katherine Keckeisen (Danbury, Conn.) and junior captain Lauren Sheridan (Bethpage, N.Y.) each scored twice for the Bulldogs (1-6), but the biggest story of the game was the play of junior goalie Lauren Filippone (West Babylon, N.Y.), whose 21-save performance set not just a new career high, but a new program record.

The junior captain made 12 stops in the opening half and held Holy Cross (3-7) to just four second-frame goals in the record-setting display, picking up a trio of ground balls as well as the netminder faced 47 Crusader shots, 32 of them on goal.

Holy Cross jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the opening period before Keckeisen put the Bulldogs on the board with a free position goal at the 15:42 mark. The home side would go on to score four more, though, while Bryant would add just one, an unassisted tally from Haley Bloom (Hauppauge, N.Y.), before the break.

Coming out of halftime with a 7-2 deficit, the Bulldogs hit the gas and didn't let up in the second session, with Sheridan and Keckeisen combining for three goals in the first five minutes to cut the home side's lead to just 7-5.

Caitie Shea would give the Crusaders a three-score cushion moments later, but Bryant responded with two more of its own – one from Antoinette Lombardi (Wallingford, Conn.) and another from Kimberley Sniffen (Redding, Conn.) – to pull within one, 8-7, with 16:02 to play.

But from there, the Holy Cross defense would kick into gear, holding Bryant to just one more tally, a Madeleine Pickett (Stratham, N.H.) score at the 6:39 mark, while the home team scored three times for the 11-8 final.

The Crusaders picked up 29 ground balls to Bryant's 14 and outshot their foes, 47-19. Holy Cross won 13 of the 20 draw controls but went just 1-for-13 on free position shots, a category in which the Bulldogs went an impressive 4-for-6.

Bryant will open up Northeast Conference action next time out, taking on Mount St. Mary's Friday at 3 p.m. at the Bryant Turf Complex.