Second Half Comeback Falls Short for Belles Against Comets
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - It was a tale of two different halves for the Saint Mary's lacrosse team on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for the Belles, the comeback effort came up short in the second half as Saint Mary's lost a 12-9 conference game to Olivet at home.
The Belles had a tough time getting into an offensive rhythm in the first half against the Comets. Olivet scored less than three minutes into the game, but the Belles came back with a goal 23 seconds later. Hanna Makwoski won the draw, and Aubrey Golembieski went straight to goal and scored on the Belles' first shot of the game.
Aubrey Golembieski led the Belles
with three goals against Olivet.The Comets put two more goals on the scoreboard before Golembieski made it a 3-2 game with 17:22 left on the clock. Olivet, however, closed out the final 16 minutes with three consecutive goals to take a 6-2 halftime lead. The Comets out-shot the Belles 11-3 over the first 20 minutes of play while Saint Mary's committed 16 turnovers to Olivet's 13 during that same span.
The Comets opened up the second half with two goals in the first six minutes of play, but the Belles were far from conceding defeat. Emilie Vanneste checked the ball from the Olivet goalkeeper, picked up the ground ball, and connected with Clare Theisen for a goal with 22:25 left on the clock to make it an 8-3 game.
Olivet registered a pair of goals, but Saint Mary's continued to get stronger as the game went on. Hanna Makwoski threaded a pass to Abby Krauss, who scored from close range to make it 10-4 to start the late-game comeback with just over 15 minutes left in the contest.
The Comets got a goal back a short time later, but the Belles rattled off three consecutive goals in a span of three-and-a-half minutes. Emilie Vanneste got the ball off of a wide Saint Mary's shot and rolled the crease from the left side before scoring to start the scoring run. Aubrey Golembieski wrangled in a pass from Clare Theisen and scored only 36 seconds later to make it 11-6, which forced Olivet to use their final timeout of the game. Almost three minutes later, Abby Krauss found a lot of space and carried the ball in toward goal before firing a shot. Her initial effort was stopped, but the ball came out of the crease where Krauss picked it up and immediately scored to pull the Belles within four.
Olivet stopped the scoring run with a goal 26 seconds later, but the Belles again came back fighting. Shannon Weyer came up with a big save with just over five minutes left in the game to keep the comeback hopes alive. Three minutes later, Hanna Makowski lobbed a pass across the front of goal to a wide open Clare Theisen, who had a quick stick shot from the edge of the crease find its way in to make it a 12-8 game with 2:11 to go.
Emilie Vanneste won the ensuing draw control and went straight to goal, switched her cradle from her left to her right, and scored with just under two minutes remaining.
The Belles, however, were only able to get one more shot over the final 1:59 of the game as the comeback fell short. Saint Mary's out-shot Olivet 16-12 over the final 20 minutes of the game and had three fewer turnovers during the second half than the Comets.
Aubrey Golembieski led the Belles with three goals. Clare Theisen and Emilie Vanneste each scored two goals while picking up an assist. Abby Krauss added two goals, and Hanna Makowski tallied a pair of assists. Katlynn Dee led the Belles with eight ground balls and four caused turnovers.
The Belles (5-6, 1-2 MIAA) travel to Trine on Saturday, April 11 for a 1:00 p.m. conference game.