On a frigid St. Patrick’s Day evening this Tuesday, the women’s lacrosse team (4-3, 1-0 Ivy League) clobbered in-state rival Bryant (6-4, 1-0 America East) 12-6, ultimately winning the Ocean State Cup matchup for the sixth year in a row. After lying dormant in the opening quarter and falling behind 3-0, the Bears furiously battled to make a comeback and secure their third straight victory of the season.
Brown’s resilient performance featured swaths of offensive and defensive prowess. Ruby Sliwkowski ’27 and Kiki Tormey ’26 each notched hat tricks, scoring seven times collectively. On the field’s opposite end, goaltender Mackenzie Conway ’29 made nine spectacular saves and held Bryant’s attack to just one goal throughout the second and third quarters.
But the game’s first 15 minutes bore little resemblance to the rest of the game. From the opening draw, Bryant appeared superior and consistently threatened goals.
The Bulldogs didn’t wait long to break the scoring seal. Just five minutes into the contest, Bryant forward Gabriella Constant charged through Brown’s defense and sent the ball rattling home.
Less than three minutes later, Constant struck again. Cutting toward the crease, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer received a pass from teammate Leyna Schnetzer and almost immediately flicked it into the back of the net, doubling Bryant’s advantage.
Making matters worse, Bryant found paydirt once more with four minutes left in the period, pushing their advantage to three.
With the clock flashing zeroes, the Bears blearily stumbled to the sideline, searching for any way to merely stop the bleeding.
After the break, the luck of the Irish turned Bruno’s way and the team returned reborn. Suddenly, the Bears’ passes and shots gained an extraordinary precision, and their defensive effort took on a steely quality.
Tessie Batchelder ’29 scored Bruno’s first goal. From beyond the restraining line, the first-year standout stormed downhill towards the net. Outpacing a Bryant defender, Batchelder released a screaming shot that sped over the outstretched stick of Bulldog goalkeeper Sierra Donis.
Two possessions later, Marley Wright ’26 took a shot that bounced waywardly left. But the Bears retained possession, and on the senior’s second opportunity to score, she didn’t miss twice. Pushing through contact, Wright split the difference between Donis and the net’s right pipe to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to just one.
The Bears took advantage of a green card penalty on Bryant that awarded Bruno a power play. Tormey netted her first goal of the evening, angling her stick from the doorstep of the crease to circumvent the Bryant defense and find the bottom-right corner of the goal.
Having evened the contest at 3-3 momentum was firmly on the Bears’ side. With about a minute left in the quarter, a penalty on the Bulldogs awarded the Bears a free position shot. Sliwkowski stepped up to the eight-meter arc, flew down the attacking area and delivered a bullet of a shot that flew over Donis’s outstretched left leg — earning Brown their first lead of the game.
Sliwkowski continued her scoring streak after emerging from the locker room for the third quarter. Taking another free position shot 90 seconds into the second half, Brown’s leading scorer feinted to her left before dumping the ball into the net’s right side.
Following Sliwkowski’s second score, the contest settled for the first time in the evening. The tally remained 5-3 in Brown’s favor for more than eight minutes.
Still, the scoreless period held its fair share of drama. Throughout those minutes, the Bruno defense showed off their stoutness –– Conway warded off several close shots, including a variety of dangerous fast breaks and free positions.
But with five minutes remaining in the quarter, the Bears’ defense eventually succumbed to the Bulldogs’ strikes. Though Cece Korn ’27 was able to strip a Bryant attacker in the Bulldogs’ offensive zone, she almost immediately lost the ball, and Bryant’s Leyna Schnetzer had no problem scooping it up and dishing it to her teammate for a goal.
Though they had their lead cut to just one goal, Bruno refused to nurse their 5-4 lead. Instead, they responded by blowing the game wide open — scoring four times in the last four minutes of the third quarter.
Tormey found the back of the net first. From directly in front of the crease, the senior received a terrific pass from Sliwkowski and quickly sent it into the goal.
The next two goals came from Sliwkowski herself. Receiving an assist from Adele Atherton ’27 behind the net, Sliwkowski slung the ball swiftly to the goal and established her hat trick. Later, on a free position opportunity, the senior scored her fourth and final goal of the evening and pushed the score to 8-4.
Next, Riley Peterson ’28 charged towards Donis, cleaving the black-and-gold defense and leveraging a blisteringly quick shot before the Bryant goalie could respond.
As the clock turned to the match’s final quarter, the Bears stood with a 9-4 advantage. But they didn’t rest or coast to victory, and instead found paydirt three more times.
Off a free position, Annie Dignazio ’29 sidearmed a shot under the sticks of two defenders and past Donis. As Conway delivered more stellar saves, Tormey added an underarm score to earn her hat trick, and Batchelder scored her second goal of the night.
Two garbage-time goals from Bryant, with just about than 60 seconds remaining in the contest, took the final score to 12-6.
The Bears will look to add to their three-game winning streak when they visit Yale on Sunday.
Sajiv Mehta is a senior staff writer covering sports. He is from Scarsdale, New York and plans on concentrating in English and American Studies. In his free time, he can be found reading an encyclopedic novel or watching the Yankees.
