COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Four Ursinus women's lacrosse players collected two-goal games in a 17-10 setback to visiting Babson in Wednesday's non-conference finale at Patterson Field.
Sophomores Grace Langen and Brittney Bedrossian, along with seniors Courtney Cortese and Kaci McNeave, each scored a pair of goals for the Bears (1-6), who were looking for two straight wins after picking up their first victory of the season over Sewanee to cap off their spring break trip in Tennessee.
Cortese also assisted on a Bears goal for a team-high three points. A goal each from sophomore Haley O'Malley and freshman Jill Verrelle rounded out the scoring for Ursinus.
The Bears struck first when Cortese got on the scoreboard on a free position goal under four minutes in. But it was the strong Babson (3-3) duo of Lexi Lenaghan and Georgia Salvatore who were a handful to defend. The top two goal scorers for the Beavers totaled 12 of the team's 17 tallies; Lenaghan netted seven goals, with five of them coming in the first half, while Salvatore contributed a game-high eight points on five goals and three assists.
Babson generated much of its offensive possession from the circle, where they outgained the Bears, 22-7, on the draw.
After Cortese's initial goal, Babson responded less than a minute later to start a flurry of five unanswered goals. The Beavers worked several cutting players towards the net as passers found attacks from behind the net.
Salvatore finished off one of Babson's cutting plays to knot the game at 1-1 after getting a pass from behind the net. Over four minutes later, Salvatore's second goal gave the Beavers the lead on a charging free position shot toward the net.
Lenaghan received a pass from Salvatore who was behind the net then threw one into the net to go up 3-1 less than a minute later.
Entrenched in Ursinus' defensive end, the Beavers were held scoreless for a couple minutes later with strong play from Abby Goldstein. The senior goalie came up with several difficult saves among nine total stops in her first career start between the pipes and third appearance of the season. She's made the transition from attack to goalie with ease as she scored 16 goals in each of her three seasons on offense for the Bears.
Two more tallies by Babson made the score 5-1 before the Bears' second goal by Langen trickled in off goalie Cricket Fligor, who went on to make nine saves for the Beavers.
A man-up blast by McNeave from Cortese at 11:36 followed a Beavers marker to pull within 6-3. Cortese pocketed her second on a free-positon attempt after a Babson tally to keep the margin three at 7-4.
Babson outscored Ursinus, 5-1, over the last eight minutes to carry a 12-5 lead into halftime. Verrelle's hesitation and dodge move accounted for the Bears' lone goal during that stretch, with over four minutes to go in the first half.
Ursinus played a much better second half in which it outshot Babson, 13-8, to close the shot differential to 32-23 in Babson's favor.
The Bears protected the ball better than the Beavers, committing 13 turnovers to 22 miscues for the visitors. Ursinus forced 15 turnovers in the last stanza.
Lenaghan's sixth goal opened the second half's scoring under four minutes in. The Bears took advantage of a man-up situation when O'Malley tickled the twine with 21:29 left in the game.
A couple minutes later, Bedrossian scored her first goal of the season when she side-armed a free position shot to get the score to 13-7.
Bedrossian's second tally came with over eight minutes to play. Langen capped the scoring when she successfully executed a wraparound shot with under three minutes to go.
The Bears open Centennial Conference play when they take on top-ranked Gettysburg at the Battlefield Saturday for a 1 p.m. game.