FREDERICK, Md. -- The Mount Holyoke College lacrosse team made a strong showing in their first road game of the season on Monday at Hood College, cutting an eight-goal halftime deficit to five with more than six minutes remaining, in a 17-11 non-conference loss.
Julia Gregory paced the Blazers (4-3) with seven goals and one assist. Rachel Harper had three goals and two assists, and Abby Burnette chipped in three more goals.
Junior Emi Bisson (Chester, Conn.) had four goals and one assist for the Lyons (2-3), passing the 150 career points mark on the way. First-year Juliana Spaulding (Wakefield, Mass.) scored three goals and junior Elle Mader (Cincinnati, Ohio) added two.
Junior Alex Twomey (Nutley, N.J.) had a monster game on defense for the Lyons, finishing with four caused turnovers and eight ground balls. Spaulding also had four caused turnovers.
Mount Holyoke trailed 15-8 with just under 10 minutes to play before junior Langley Berat (New York, N.Y.) scored a man-down goal with an assist from Bisson. Spaulding and Bisson added scores at 7:49 and 6:46 to make it a 15-10 game.
Burnette answered with a goal off the ensuing draw with 6:30 to go, but less than a minute later, senior Ella Phillips (Sandwich, Mass.) closed the gap to five again with a free-position goal.
Avery Stanley scored with 4:27 left to return a six-goal cushion to the Blazers, and they held off the Lyons the rest of the way.
Hood outshot Mount Holyoke 35-31, but the Lyons had a 24-22 edge in ground balls, a 24-19 advantage in turnovers and a 13-8 advantage in caused turnovers.
Mount Holyoke next plays at Marymount University in Arlington, Va., Thursday at 4pm.
