Wagner escapes with 14-13 win Friday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The Bryant University women's lacrosse team owned a 9-8 advantage at the half, but Wagner College scored early and often in the second half to escape with a 14-13 win Friday night at the Bryant Turf Complex.

Of Wagner's 14 goals, 12 came from the scoring trio of Sam Morin, Carolyn Clark and Melanie Garces, who each posted at least three goals in the victory. Morin led the way with five strikes and added an assist, while Clark's four tallies contributed to her game-best seven points on the day. Garces added three for the Seahawks (6-5, 1-2 Northeast Conference), while Erika Bulken chipped in a pair of goals and two helpers.

The Bulldogs (1-8, 0-2) were paced by four goals from sophomore leading scorer Haley Bloom (Hauppauge, N.Y.), scores which included a natural hat trick over a span of 4:22 in the first half. Senior Lauren Sheridan (Bethpage, N.Y.) tied Bloom's team-high four points with three goals of her own as well as an assist.

Down, 6-5, midway through the opening stanza, the Bulldogs rode three-straight Bloom goals to an 8-6 lead and took their biggest advantage of the night 22 seconds later off a Sheridan goal to go up, 9-6, with 8:25 to play in the first.

Wagner would close out the half with back-to-back Morin scores, but couldn't knot the game before the clock ran out, sending the teams into the break with a 9-8 margin in Bryant's favor. But the lead would not last long into the second-half clock, as Clark netted her third goal of the day just 2:28 into the period to tie the game at 9-9.

Wagner would see another Morin goal give it the 10-9 edge two minutes later, and while the home side tied the game again at 10-10 with 23 minutes to play, the Bulldogs would never regain the lead despite a late three-goal push.

Over a stretch that took the clock down to 11:54, the Seahawks opened up the largest lead of the night, getting four-straight goals bookended by Bulken tallies to take a 14-10 advantage. Sheridan closed the deficit to three less than a minute after Bulken's second tally with a free position goal, and Bloom followed 58 seconds later with her own unassisted score just as the clock ticked under 10 minutes to go.

Senior Mary Green (Merrick, N.Y.) netted what would end up as the final goal of the evening with 8:46 left to cut Wagner's lead to 14-13, but two big saves from Seahawk rookie goalkeeper Shannon Sweeney in the final 90 seconds kept Bryant out of the cage and off the board for the remainder of the game.

Sweeney would finish with 10 saves on the night, while her Bulldog counterpart Lauren Filippone (West Babylon, N.Y.) made seven stops. Bryant outshot Wagner, 36-26, on the day but put just 23 of them on goal to the visitor's 21. Each team picked up 16 ground balls on the day, paced by a game-high four from sophomore Lisa Vendel (Sandy Hook, Conn.), who also chipped in a pair of scores for the Black and Gold. Wagner edged out its host on the draw, winning 15 to Bryant's 14, as Denieda McCullough earned five draw controls to pace the contest.

The Bulldogs won't have long to get ready for their next outing, as Bryant returns to the field Sunday afternoon against LIU Brooklyn at 1 p.m. in search of their first conference win of the season.