By: Ryan Sosic '19

BEREA, Ohio- In the first home game of the 2018 season, the Baldwin Wallace University women's lacrosse team lost to Allegheny (Pa.) College by a score of 20-15 in non-conference action on Tressel Field inside George Finnie Stadium.

BW (2-3) was led by senior attack Caitlin Wheeler (Lake Mills, Wis./Oak Park-River Forest {Ill.}) and sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference midfielder Hannah Stein (Medina/Highland) who each tallied a game-high tying five goals. Junior attack Hannah Albrechta (Uniontown/Green) added two goals and senior defender Lauryn Wright (Orrville) led the Jackets with a career-high six ground balls.

Allegheny (2-1) was led by sophomore attack Maddie Olson with a game-high tying five goals Senior attack Shelby Piper and sophomore midfielder Emily Kraus both contributed four goals for the Gators.

In the first half, Allegheny got out to an early 2-0 lead after goals by Kraus and Piper. BW got on the board after Wheeler found the back of the net with 21:36 remaining in the first half.  Allegheny then went on a 3-0 run, including two goals by Piper, to make the score 5-1. BW cut down the lead to 5-2 after another Wheeler goal at the 10:32 mark. Allegheny responded with a 4-0 run to give the Gators a 9-2 lead. BW closed out the first half strong, highlighted by two goals from Wheeler, who is working toward her 100th career goal, but BW trailed 10-6 at the intermission.

Both offenses came out firing in the second half with Allegheny striking first after a goal by Alex Aielinski at the 28:20 mark. Junior All-OAC midfielder Megan Patrick (Ravenna/Kent Roosevelt) found the back of a net on a free position shot less than two minutes later to cut the deficit down to 11-7. Over the next five minutes, the two teams continued to trade goals, including Stein tallying two man-up goals. Allegheny's offense continued rolling, scoring three goals in one minute which increased their lead to 18-11 with 13:24 remaining. Jackets countered with three goals of their own close the Allegheny lead to four, 18-14, with 4:18 left on the game clock. The final goal for BW was recorded on a free-position shot by Stein with 1:23 remaining.

The Yellow Jackets are back in action on Saturday, March 17 when the team hosts a non-conference contest against Kenyon College on the Tressel Field inside George Finnie Stadium at 1 p.m.