The women’s lacrosse team traveled to New York last weekend for games against Iona and Le Moyne. The ‘Cats fell to the Gaels of Iona in a dramatic 9-8, double overtime loss in New Rochelle, N.Y., on Saturday. The game was close, and at halftime, the score was tied at five. Iona, however, sprung to an early lead after halftime, scoring three goals within the first nine minutes of the second half. The Wildcats were not ready to give up just yet and staged a late second-half comeback to tie the game at eight. Senior Christina Bahrs started the rally by scoring with 17 minutes remaining, and sophomore Taryn McKenna scored a goal with 9:08 left in the game. Freshman Sam McKillip tied the game with her goal with just under six minutes remaining in the game.

“We didn’t give up the entire time, so making the game into overtime was really exciting,” McKillip said of her game-tying score. “It was funny because right before I went into the game with five minutes left, my coach said, ‘Shoot with confidence.’ I literally ran in, got a free position shot and then had a goal. I was happy that I could step up and contribute a goal to my team since everyone was working so hard throughout the entire game.”

Neither team scored during the first overtime period, but two minutes into the second overtime period, Iona junior Jaclyn O’Leary scored the winning goal.

“The whole game was a big battle, and the whole team worked hard throughout the entire two halves,” McKillip said. “We were disappointed that we came up short in OT, but we knew we worked hard and just got unlucky with some calls and plays.”

Villanova goalkeeper senior Jess Brozena finished the game with seven saves in goal, and Bahrs finished with two goals on the day. Freshman Erica Rybinski had a goal and two assists.

On Sunday, the team traveled to Syracuse, N.Y., where they took on the Le Moyne Dolphins. Le Moyne jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first three minutes of the game, but the ‘Cats responded with four unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead with 8:34 left in the half. The Dolphins, however, answered back with three straight goals and went into halftime with a 5-4 lead. They kept their streak going in the second half by scoring three goals within the first 11:28 of the half to jump out to an 8-4 lead. The Wildcats were unable to regain the lead from that point and ended up losing by a final score of 10-7, dropping to a record of 2-5 on the season. Bahrs finished the game with three goals, McKenna had two goals on the day and junior Stevie McFadden and McKillip each scored one goal in the game to round out the scoring for the Wildcats. Bozena finished the day with four saves in goal. The team will have its next game tomorrow at Villanova against Longwood and will then play on Sunday afternoon against La Salle.