WASHINGTON, Pa. (March 28) - The Saint Vincent women's lacrosse team fell 14-8 to rival Washington & Jefferson College in Ohio River Lacrosse Conference action at Alexandre Stadium in Washington County. 

W&J opened with the first three goals before Saint Vincent countered with two scores of their own by junior Naomi Schwaiger. The Presidents rattled off the next give goals while holding the Bearcats scoreless over the final 15:30 of the first half. The stingy W&J defense helped the home team build a 7-2 halftime advantage. 

The Presidents opened the second half with a pair of goals to stretch the lead to 9-2 at the 19:52 mark. However, the Bearcats showed fight and resiliency to claw back into the game. Saint Vincent outscored W&J 5-1 over the next eight plus minutes to close the deficit to 10-7. During the run, senior Maggie Nelson tallied three goals before junior Courtney Kloos brought SVC within three at the 10:14 mark. 

However, W&J took advantage of a SVC yellow card to score a man-up goal and stop the momentum that the Bearcats built. The Presidents closed the game with four of the final five goals to earn the ORLC victory. 

Nelson led SVC with five points, tallying four goals and an assist in the loss. Nelson added six draw controls and four ground balls. Schwaiger recorded another hat trick, while Kloos registered the other Bearcat goal. Defensively, sophomore Payton Knupp put together a strong performance, picking up a career-high six ground balls. Junior goalkeeper Maria Franey stopped 10 shots in 60 minutes of action in goal. 

Rae LaRochelle and Alexis Miller recorded four goals each to pace the Presidents. The loss drops SVC to 2-1 in ORLC play and 4-2 overall. W&J improves to 1-0 in league play and 4-2 overall. 

Saint Vincent out-shot W&J by a 36-27 margin in the loss. Both teams struggled with turnovers and on clears. W&J committed 27 turnovers and successfully cleared 13 of 28, while SVC turned it over 26 times and cleared successfully 14 of 23 times. 

The Bearcats return to action at Waynesburg University in ORLC play on Wednesday, April 4. Start time is set for 4 p.m.