HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College women's lacrosse team came up short in its bid for an upset against fifth-ranked Gettysburg College on Saturday afternoon as the Fords fell 11-5 to the visiting Bullets in the Centennial Conference opener for both teams.
After Gettysburg, the defending conference champion, opened the scoring in the first minute of the contest, Haverford (5-2, 0-1 CC) showed the Bullets (7-0, 1-0) they were in for a battle throughout the afternoon when Megan Gallagher converted a Kenny Likes' feed at 25:46 for her eighth of the season.
Amanda Borucki's 10th of the year restored the Gettysburg advantage but the Fords refused to back down and their persistent attack paid dividends as Diana Perry tallied her 21st of the season around the 19-minute mark.
Haverford continued to pressure the Bullets over the remainder of the half but Gettysburg goalie Lindsay Clinton (6-0) registered eight saves to keep the Fords from doing any more damage on the scoreboard. Buoyed by Clinton's efforts, the Bullets closed out the first half with five straight goals.
Trailing 7-2 at the break, Haverford looked for a surge of its own in the second half. Gallagher's second of the day, off an assist from Perrin Downing, brought the Fords within five, 8-3, at 23:38 but Gettysburg's defense, allowing just seven goals on average this season, did not give Haverford's offense much room to operate over the remainder of the contest.
The Fords tallied two of the last three goals of the day as Perry scored her team-leading 22nd of the season and Christina Gould added her 11th on a free position shot.
Coming up with several difficult stops, Shannon Horn (4-2) made a season-high 12 saves to help limit the Bullets to just four goals in the second half.
Grace Stockbower was active on defense throughout the contest with a team-high four caused turnovers and two ground balls. Gould helped the cause with three ground balls.
Katie Blumenthal and Liz Cocchiola shared game-high scoring honors with three goals apiece while Kelsey Markiewicz added four assists.
Haverford returns to action on Wednesday afternoon when it makes the short trip to Eastern University for a non-conference contest against the Eagles at 4 p.m.