TONEY AND CRONAN LEAD DUTCHWOMEN PAST SAINTS IN CONFERENCE OPENER

Mar. 23: The St. Lawrence University women’s lacrosse team dropped their 2007 Liberty League opener to Union College on Friday afternoon, as the Dutchwomen got six goals from senior Allie Toney and four from fellow classmate Stephanie Cronan to lead the visitors past the Scarlet and Brown by the score of 17-6 at North Country Field.

Senior Kathryn Durki and sophomore Amanda Forbes each scored two goals for St. Lawrence, while first year students Julie Wooters and Lexi Wisnowski each added a goal. The win moved Union to 1-1 on the young season and 1-0 in the league, while the Saints dropped to 0-3 (0-1).

Durki gave St. Lawrence the early lead less than three minutes into the game when she fired a shot past Union goalie Melissa McDonald for an unassisted tally. The Saints seemed to feed off the goal, playing solid defense and keeping the Dutchwomen off the scoreboard through the opening ten minutes of the game.

However, Toney would score back to back goals for Union only 19 seconds apart at 10:03 and 10:22 to put the visitors on top 2-1. Cronan and Toney would combine for the next four goals to give Union a 6-1 advantage with 7:52 to play in the first half. Cronan scored the third goal for the Dutchwomen, while Toney took a pass from Cronan in front of St. Lawrence goalie Becky Timbers and buried the shot for her third of the game to make it 4-1.

Cronan then scored back-to-back goals, with the first coming on a free position shot and the second an unassisted tally at 22:08 to put Union ahead 6-1.

The Saints bounced back quickly, though, scoring two quick goals in 52 seconds to pull to within 6-3. Wisnowski scored on a free position goal to make the score 6-2, followed by a goal from Wooters with 5:02 to play in the first thirty minutes.

Union wasn’t finished offensively, though, and rattled off two more goals to close the half and take an 8-3 lead into the intermission. Erin Lawson took a feed from Caitlin Cuozzo and beat Timbers at 25:24, then Emily Bryson completed the first half’s scoring on a free position shot at 27:10.

Toney would keep the momentum on Union’s side to start the second half, scoring two quick goals to make the score 10-3. Though the Saints answered with goals from Forbes and Durki to cut the deficit to five, Union put the game away with six straight goals from Cronan, Lawson, Liz Zamore, Toney, Keri Messa, and Abbey Runner to build a 16-5 advantage.

Forbes scored her second of the game to complete St. Lawrence’s scoring with 2:40 remaining in the game on a free position shot, while Cuozzo scored the game’s final goal on a free position shot with 1:27 remaining to reach the final score of 17-6.

“Union is obviously a strong team this season with a lot of veteran leadership,” said Saints head coach Jodi Axtell. “We’re still a young squad trying to put it all together. We need to take things one game at a time, and it starts with Skidmore tomorrow.”

McDonald finished with 9 saves in goal for Union, with several of them coming at critical times of the contest. Timbers also played well for the Saints despite taking the loss, stopping seven Union shots.

The Dutchwomen managed to out-shoot the Saints by a 30-24 margin, and scooped up 17 ground balls to

St. Lawrence’s 12.

St. Lawrence will look to pick up their first win of the season tomorrow, Saturday, March 24th against Skidmore College. The Saints and Thoroughbreds are set to square-off at North Country Field at 2:00pm.

SAINTS FALL TO WELLESLEY, 15-9

Mar. 20: Turnovers proved to be the undoing of the St. Lawrence University women’s lacrosse team in a 15-9 loss to Wellesley College in Florida on Tuesday.

The Saints committed 32 turnovers in the game, and while they caused 26 turnovers with their defense, their own difficulties in maintaining possession was a key factor in the loss.

SLU, now 0-2, trailed 7-3 at the half and came back with a solid second half in terms of goal-scoring, but couldn’t catch up.

Amanda Forbes scored three goals for the Saints, Kathryn Durki added two and Julie Wooters, Amanda Waters, Patty Ball and Lis Reade had single goals.

Becky Timbers made 14 saves in goal for the Saints.

SLU will return to action in Canton Friday and Saturday, opening the Liberty League season with home games against Union and Skidmore.