Poughkeepsie, NY – The Vassar College Women's Lacrosse team played a home game for the first time since March 21 Wednesday evening and suffered a tough 15-14 Liberty League defeat to visiting Skidmore.
Tess Billings (Deerfield, IL) and
Elizabeth Burgess (Columbus, OH) led the offense with four points apiece and senior
Maddie Busam (Summit, NJ) made 12 saves in goal.
Wednesday's loss is Vassar sixth straight defeat and drops the Brewers to 5-6 overall and 0-6 in Liberty League play. Skidmore evens its record at 7-7 overall and moves to 3-4 against league rivals.
How It Happened
- Tightly contested throughout, Vassar outscored Skidmore 5-4 in each of the first two periods on Wednesday.
- After Skidmore opened the scoring 40 seconds into the game, Vassar ripped off four straight goals, including a pair of markers from Burgess, to race out to a 4-1 lead with 6:42 left in the first frame.
- Skidmore answered with three of the final four goals of the quarter with Hillary Noble supplying two of the goals.
- An Ameila Poirier (Atherton, CA) marker with 3:14 left in the period was the difference, giving Vassar the one-goal advantage through 15 minutes.
- The Brewers ran out to a 9-5 advantage with a 4-1 scoring run to open the second frame.
- Billings, Emilia DiLiberto (Allison Park, PA) and Maddie Kaltsas (Minnetrista, MN) all scored just under two minutes apart to push Vassar in front 8-4 with 12:47 left before halftime.
- Burgess' third goal of the game gave Vassar a four-goal cushion before a 3-1 run for the Thoroughbreds brought them to within 10-8 at the intermission.
- Skidmore outshot Vassar by a slim 20-19 margin in the first half with Vassar holding an 11-8 edge in draw controls.
- Both teams tightened on defense in the second half with the two sides combing for 11 goals.
- Vassar was limited to only four goals after halftime, potting two tallies in the third and fourth frames.
- The Brewers maintained the lead until a Julia Cafasso player-up goal tied the score at 11-11 with 6:45 left in the third period.
- Skidmore added two more goals after the Cafasso tally, getting markers from Lily Hudner and Pheobe Ross to grab a 13-11 advantage.
- Billings' third goal of the game got Vassar to within a goal, at 13-12, heading into the final 15 minutes.
- Logan Skuro (Chappaqua, NY) and Billings scored just under four minutes apart to open the fourth quarter scoring and push Vassar back in front 14-13 with 9:56 left in the contest.
- Noble and Hudner came back with goals four-and-a-half minutes apart to finish off the scoring in the game.
- Noble tallied to tie the score with 8:44 left to play with Hudner scoring the eventual game winner at the 4:13 mark.
- Vassar had a possession in the closing seconds, but was unable to get a shot off in an attempt to the tie the game.
- Skidmore outshot Vassar 16-14 in the second half and held a slim 7-6 edge in draw controls.
For The Brewers
- Billings scored four times, moving her team lead in goals to 34, and added four groundballs and a caused turnover.
- Burgess finished with a hat trick and an assist and totaled a groundball and a draw control.
- Skuro closed a strong night with a goal, two assists and a groundball.
- Poirier scored twice and helped on a third goal for the Brewers.
- Sigrid Fredlund (Seattle, WA) tallied once and assisted on two markers.
- Kaltsas totaled three points on the strength of two goals and an assist to go along with a caused turnover and a groundball.
- DiLiberto led the Brewers with seven draw controls in the contest and chipped in a goal and a groundball.
- Emily Kallman (Jamestown, RI) won six draws, collected three groundballs and led the team with two caused turnovers.
- Kate Connelly (Owings Mills, MD) won three draws, collected two groundballs and forced a miscue.
- Megan Sweeney (Orlando, FL) joined Billings with a team-high four groundballs.
- Busam reached double-figures in saves for the fourth time in the last five games with 12 stops on Wednesday.
- Cassidy Schuchat (Hopewell Junction, NY) turned aside three shots in just over eight minutes of action.
For The Thoroughbreds
- Cafasso finished with six points, scoring four times and assisting on two goals, and added two groundballs and five draw controls.
- Noble reached four points after scoring three times and adding an assist.
- Hudner posted a hat trick, including the game winning goal.
- Brooke Lavallee finished with five draw controls, two groundballs and a caused two turnovers.
- Charlotte Taylor led the team with three groundballs, won two draws and scored a goal.
- Tatum Walsh earned the win in goal with nine saves, including two stops in the final 2:14 with Skidmore leading by a goal.
Game Statistics
- Skidmore closed the night with a slim 36-34 advantage in shots.
- Draw controls went to the Brewers by a 17-15 margin.
- Vassar held a slight 18-17 advantage in groundballs.
- The Brewers closed the game 15-for-17 in clears.
- Skidmore went 17-for-19 in clearing chances.
- Skidmore was a perfect 2-for-2 in free-position shots.
- Vassar went 1-for-2 in free-position attempts.
What's Next
- Vassar hosts Union Saturday afternoon on Senior Day. Please not the game time change to 3:00 p.m.
- Skidmore visits Rochester on Friday afternoon.
