April 10, 2013 (Northfield, VT)- The Mount Ida College women's lacrosse team suffered a 10-8 Great Northeast Athletic Conference set back to the Cadets of Norwich University on Wednesday afternoon. With the loss, Mount Ida drops to (4-8, 2-5 GNAC), good for eighth place in the conference, while Norwich improves to (3-5, 2-3 GNAC), seventh in the league.
Norwich opened the first half of play on tallies by Hope Royce (Washington, VT), Grace Fitzpatrick (Falmouth, ME), and Gina Conroy (Amherst, NH), giving the Cadets an early 3-0 advantage. Amanda Bowen (Randolph, VT/Randolph Union) got the Mustangs on the board at the 21:14 mark before Conroy would add her second second tally of the day, giving the Cadets a 4-1 lead. Mount Ida would retaliate with three straight goals from Kaitlyn Affhauser (Cheshire, MA/Hoosac), Bowen's second, and Alexandria Milot's (Tiverton, RI/Tiverton) only score of the day, tying the game at 4-4. Conroy would regain the lead for the Cadets less than a minute later on a free position goal giving the hosts a 5-4 lead. With just over a minute left in the half, the visitors would score three goals on marks from Molly Sheppard (Brookhaven, NY/Bellport), and Affhauser and Bowen's second tallies of the game. At the half, the Mustangs carried some momentum, leading 7-5.
The second half started off much like the first with the Cadets scoring early and often. Royce would score her second goal of the game at the 29:19 mark, cutting the lead for the Mustangs down to just 7-6. Five minutes later, Larissa Gokey (St. Johnsbury, VT) recorded her first tally of the game off an assist from Conroy, knotting the game at 7-7. Fitzpatrick would score two straight unassisted goals in a nine minute span giving Norwich a two goal lead at 9-7. Gokey would add her final score of the game with 13:34 left in the contest, increasing the Norwich lead to 10-7. With just 0:54 seconds left in the game, Bowen would add the final goal of the game for the Mustangs, but would prove not enough as the Cadets would take the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory by a final score of 10-8.
Senior keeper Kayla Musty (Topsham, VT/Oxbow) saw the entire game in goal for the visitors making two saves on 12 shots, while Cheyenne Mata-Noel (East Hampton, NY) saw the entirety of the contest for the hosts, making 11 saves on 19 shots.
Mount Ida will get back to work on Saturday, April 13th, when they travel to GNAC foe Simmons College with game time set for 11:00 a.m. Norwich will also be in action on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Rivier University for a 1:00 p.m. start.