Comeback Falls Short for Belles Against Flying Dutch
Saint Mary's Stories
HOLLAND, Mich. - The Saint Mary's lacrosse team made a late push while keeping host Hope off the scoreboard for the final 20 minutes of the game, but it was not quite enough as the Belles lost 16-10 to the Flying Dutch on Tuesday evening.
Hope took the early 1-0 lead four minutes into play, but the Belles responded with a goal of their own three minutes later with an unassisted Aubrey Golembieski score.
In what proved to be a high-scoring first half, the Flying Dutch netted seven of the next eight goals of the game as Golembieski registered her second goal of the game in the eleventh minute of action while Hope took the momentum and an 8-2 lead with 14:22 left before the break.
Aubrey Golembieski and Sarah Neeser tallied back-to-back goals for the Belles to make it 8-4 with 12:44 before halftime, but Hope countered with four goals over the final 11:20 to hold a 12-4 advantage at the end of the first period.
After Hope extended their lead to 14-4, Golembieski registered her fourth goal of the game four minutes into the second half. Two and a half minutes later, the Belles were able to respond after another Hope goal with a Jackie Loesch score at 23:17 in the half.
The Flying Dutch pushed their advantage to 16-6 with a goal at the 20:01 mark, but the Belles would not go quietly down the stretchy. The Saint Mary's defense locked down the Hope offense and kept the Flying Dutch off the scoreboard for the remainder of the contest. The offense for the Belles, meanwhile, did their best to chip away at the deficit.
Sarah Neeser got the scoring going with her second goal of the game, and Jackie Loesch capped off a hat trick effort on a pair of passes from Tess Guerrero to make it a 16-9 game with 16:39 remaining. Stephanie Szymas came up with a pair of saves to keep the Belles alive, but the comeback fell short as Emilie Vanneste notched the lone Saint Mary's goal over the final 15 minutes to make it a 16-10 final.
Stephanie Szymas had nine saves in goal for the Belles. Aubrey Golembieski led Saint Mary's with four goals, Jackie Loesch added three, Sarah Neeser tallied her first multi-goal performance of her collegiate career with two, and Emilie Vanneste added a goal. Tess Guerrero added a pair of assists, and Golembieski led the team with five draw controls and two ground balls.
The Belles (1-8, 0-2 MIAA) return to conference action on Saturday, April 12 when they host Adrian for a 1:00 p.m. game against the Bulldogs.