Over the weekend, women’s lacrosse lost two competitive matchups in Florida where each game was defined by relentless back-and-forth play.
On Friday, the Bears saw several strong offensive pushes against Jacksonville University, but they were ultimately unable to overcome a comeback surge from their foes after halftime, losing 10-16. The next day, the Bears stayed neck-in-neck with the University of Southern Florida before their opponents put up three goals to defeat Bruno 13-10.
Against Jacksonville, the decisive moment came during the third quarter when Brown was overwhelmed with an unanswered seven-goal run. The Dolphins’ offense was relentless, setting up shots quickly after gaining possession to shut out the Bears’ defense, securing Jacksonville’s winning blitz.
The Bears took advantage of minor fouls from Jacksonville to make six of the 10 goals scored from free position shots, but the team was outmaneuvered in the second half.
Minutes into the game, attacker Tessie Batchelder ’29 sent a free position shot to lock up the first point of the game. Moments later, defender Riley Peterson ’28 executed a nimble left dodge while rushing to close distance to score Bruno’s second goal.
While the Bears showcased coordinated offensive setups early on by cutting behind the goals and towards the wings, the team was unable to turn things around once Jacksonville adapted its offensive plays and accumulated momentum.
At the beginning of the second half, Bruno extended their lead to 8-5. But the next 20 minutes were a slaughter: Jacksonville found the net nine times. The Bears saw two unsuccessful free position shots that failed to materialize into conversions, accentuating a sharp contrast between the two halves of the matchup.
Closing out the final minutes match, Jacksonville’s offensive dominance waned — but not enough to give the Bears an upperhand. The match ended 10-16 Jacksonville.
Against USF, the Bears were able to put up defensive integrity with goalie Mackenzie Conway ’29 — who put up 10 saves, making a .435 save percentage and one caused turnover. With a .442 season save percentage four games into the season, Conway’s first year in front of the net shows promise for her career with the Bears.
USF mounted a formidable early offensive push with Conway stopping six shots in the opening quarter. Yet Conway failed to stop all of USF’s efforts, as The Bulls outmaneuvered the Bears with a clean inside pass into a successful shot that marked the first goal of the game.
The Bears fought back with a well placed behind-the-net pass from Ruby Sliwkowski ’27 that allowed Bae Bounds ’28 to take a successful shot. Just under three minutes later, Caroline Nozzolillo ’29 scored the second goal for the Bears, again with an assist from Sliwkowski, to bring the score to 2-1.
But USF quickly reclaimed the lead, mounting a sustained and successful offense to open the second quarter in a four-goal run — that would eventually be answered by a goal from Adele Atherton ’27.
Down two points, the Bears did not count themselves out and managed to gather an 8-7 lead three minutes into the third quarter. After exchanging points with USF for the rest of the quarter, Bruno entered the final 15 minutes at 10-10.
There, USF put up three unanswered goals to lock Brown into its first goal-less quarter of the season, ending the match 10-13 USF.
Bruno will seek to close the holes exposed during the team’s Florida weekend at its conference opener against Cornell next weekend.
Chiupong Huang is a senior staff writer covering sports.
