Tuesday night was tough for women’s lacrosse as the Yeowomen took on their conference opponent the Allegheny Gators on a muddy home field. They came out hot, jumping on Allegheny early to take a 3–0 lead with goals from junior Sarah Andrews, senior Ilyssa Meyer and sophomore Kate Hanick a little over eight minutes into the game.

Unfortunately, consistent light rain cooled off the Yeowomen attack and ignited the Gators’ offense as Allegheny responded with seven unanswered goals.

“It was like all of a sudden we couldn’t stop them,” said Andrews, who finished with three goals on the night. “They weren’t doing anything special or changing their style of play, we just kind [of] had a mental lapse.” Andrews and first-year Grace Barlow would net two more goals for Oberlin before the halftime whistle blew — but so would the Gators, bringing the halftime score to 6–9 in their favor.

Early in the start of the second half, Oberlin was able to close the gap to three goals on two occasions with goals by Meyer and first-year Suzanna Doak — but each time Allegheny was able to respond.

Despite the Yeowomen’s best efforts the score got away from them as the second half ticked on, with their largest deficit reaching six goals with just under 13 minutes to play. The Yeowomen would not quit, however, and netted two more goals off the sticks of Meyer and Andrews in the closing minutes to bring the score to 10–14.

“It was a closer game than the score might indicate. We were always right there, fighting the whole way; [but] we just didn’t make enough plays when they counted,” said Sarah Orbuch, a junior defender who sat out for the game due to a leg injury. “If we don’t make some of those mental mistakes, we beat that team.”

Oberlin’s mental mistakes came in the form of turnovers and failed clears. The Yeowomen amassed 23 turnovers — compared to the Gators’ nine — and cleared at 59 percent on the day, while the Gators cleared at 81 percent. Despite the sloppy play, Oberlin had some bright spots: Senior goalie Madeleine O’Meara had nine saves on the day compared to just five saves for the visitors, and Hanick helped by chipping in a game-high seven draw controls, contributing to the slight edge in draw controls for the Yeowomen.

The Yeowomen’s loss dropped them to 1–3 in the conference and 2–9 overall. They returned to action Thursday night at Ohio Wesleyan University, where they haven’t won since 2000. The Yeowomen will be back on their home turf for the final time this Saturday, April 20, as they take on the Terriers of Hiram College for their senior day game. The festivities begin at 1 p.m., so make sure to go out and support the women in their last home game of the year.