The St. Lawrence University women's lacrosse team dropped its opening contest of the 2011 season on Friday afternoon at Hall-Leet Stadium in Canton, NY.  The Saints, playing the first lacrosse game on the new turf at North Country Field, tried to rally in the second half against nationally-ranked No. 7 Cortland State, but fell short in a 14-8 loss.

Cortland State improves to 2-0 on the season thanks to a 9-3 halftime lead built behind Lindsay Abbott, who finished with seven goals for the visitors.  Meanwhile, St. Lawrence (0-1) was led by senior Kaitlyn Fahsel, junior Alanna Piroli and sophomore Brigid Hurley, who each had a pair of goals.

"We got off to a slow start, but I was happy with the way we responded in the second half," said St. Lawrence head coach Jodi Canfield.  "Playing a talented team like Cortland will certainly help prepare us for our trip to Florida."

The opening half was all Cortland State, as the Red Dragons jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 9:00 minutes.  Mary Hartzheim opened the scoring, while Maria Di Fato (2) and Ashley Cook followed with goals for the four-goal cushion.  Though Fahsel responded with an unassisted goal at 10:51 to get the Saints on the scoreboard, Taylor Robinson, Abbott and Di Fato answered with consecutive goals to push the lead to 7-1 with 5:34 remaining in the half.

Hurley and Piroli would help close the gap with back-to-back goals to get St. Lawrence to within four at 7-3.  However, Abbott scored two only 52 seconds apart in the final minute to push the Red Dragons lead to six, 9-3.

The visitors held a 17-8 advantage in shots and won the ground ball battled in the first half as well, 17-13.  St. Lawrence struggled with turnovers (11) and cleared the ball 9-of-14 times.

The Scarlet and Brown would surge back into the game in the second half, scoring four of the first five goals to pull to within three at 10-7.  Piroli scored a player-up goal at 2:47, while Hurley followed at 9:37 to get St. Lawrence within four, 9-5.  After Abbott put Cortland up 10-5, Fahsel and senior Kim Cooper scored for the home team to cut the deficit to three at 10-7 with 12:14 remaining.

Cortland State would seize control of the game thanks to Abbott, though, who rattled off three straight goals to put the game out of reach at 13-7.  Liz Beville scored the Red Dragon's final goal on a free position with 1:43 remaining to put her team on top 14-7, while junior Paige Powell capped St. Lawrence's and the game's scoring with 31 seconds left to bring the final score to 14-8.

Cortland finished with a 32-21 advantage in shots, but St. Lawrence closed with a 38-28 lead in ground balls.  The Saints committed 21 turnovers to the Red Dragons' 15.  Meanwhile, senior captain Anna Marchand made 12 saves for St. Lawrence while Shauna Hutchinson turned in a nine-save performance for Cortland State.

The Saints will look to rebound on Tuesday, March 15 when they take on Fredonia State at 4:00pm in West Palm Beach, FL.