Belles Snubbed by Spartans
Saint Mary's Stories
AURORA, Ill. - The improvement continued to come and translate itself on the field for the Saint Mary's lacrosse team, but the Belles came up short in a 12-7 final at Aurora on Thursday night.
The Belles jumped out to the quick 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the game when Aubrey Golembieski netted an unassisted shot. The Spartans countered with five straight goals over the next 10 minutes of play to establish the 5-1 advantage with 17:43 left in the first period.
Saint Mary's fought back and regained some of the momentum late in the half. Golembieski notched her second goal of the game to make it a 5-2 affair. After another Aurora goal, the Belles posted three goals in-a-row to make it a 6-5 contest with six minutes before the break. Jackie Loesch converted passes by both Lauren Telford and Golembieski to get the run started, and Sarah Neeser tallied an unassisted effort with 6:06 on the clock to set the score at 6-5.
The Spartans, however, closed out the half with a pair of goals to take an 8-5 lead at the break.
Aurora continued that run to start the second half with three more goals to take the largest lead of the game at 11-5 midway through the period. Golembieski kept the Belles alive with a goal at 14:44 to record the program's first hat trick. The freshman offset another Spartan score with her fourth goal of the contest with just over six minutes to play to make it a 12-7 game. The Belles, however, we unable to get any closer in their highest-scoring effort of the season.
The Belles collected 30 ground balls to Aurora's 24, won 13 draws to the Spartans' eight, and had fewer turnovers than their counterparts on the afternoon.
Stephanie Szymas made four saves in goal for the Belles. Aubrey Golembieski led the Belles with four goals on six shots while adding an assist and team-highs with nine ground balls and nine draw controls. Jackie Loesch added two goals on two shots. Sarah Neeser chipped in a goal on her lone shot, two draw controls, and three ground balls. Lauren Telford and Katlynn Dee also had three ground balls for Saint Mary's.
The Belles (0-5) return to action on Saturday when they travel to Concordia University Wisconsin for a 3:00 p.m. CDT contest against the Falcons.