Sw Colorado News

PUEBLO, Colo. – The Fort Lewis College women's lacrosse team wrapped up the neutral site portion of its season on Saturday, falling in a 15-7 final to Rockhurst University from Art and Lorraine Gonzales Stadium on the campus of CSU Pueblo.

Fort Lewis fell to 0-5 on the year while Rockhurst improved to 6-2 after a pair of wins over Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference members.

The Skyhawks tallied a season-high with 28 shots while the defense held the Hawks to 30 for the game—second lowest opponent shot total of the season. Rockhurst edged out Fort Lewis on draw controls, 16-10, but the Skyhawks made up ground with a season-best 10 caused turnovers on the afternoon. A key difference in the game came via free position shots where Rockhurst netted seven on 11 chances compared to three for Fort Lewis.

Junior Haley Dostie led the team with three goals on 11 shots to bring her season total to 16. Junior Ellie Martinez followed with two goals, matching a season-high, to bring her 2023 total to seven. Rounding out scorers for the Skyhawks were senior Autumn Rymerson and sophomore Mikki Brown with one apiece. The trio of Nina Polk, Valerie Garcia, and Alyssa Strough each added an assist on the afternoon.

Senior Rebecca Kiyokawa led the team with a season-best four draw controls to go along with a caused turnover and two ground balls to match a team-high. Freshman Samantha Rodgers came away with three caused turnovers to lead all players and establish a career-best just five games into the season. Senior Averi Basso started her 33rd career game at goalkeeper, playing all 60 minutes and earning nine saves along the way.

Rockhurst got ahead just two minutes into play with its first free-position goal of the game. The visitors had another chance with 12:04 on the clock, but a caused turnover by senior JoJo Lutz preserved the one-goal game momentarily. The Hawks took advantage of a Fort Lewis turnover just one minute later to net their second goal of the day. Fort Lewis was able to convert a ground ball by senior Makenna Carter into the first shot on goal, this one from freshman Sydney Tannaci, but a save by the opposing keeper made a save to keep the Skyhawks scoreless.

The teams traded turnovers in the ensuing minutes before the Hawks earned back-to-back free position chances. Basso held tough, though, and carded two saves in the effort. Despite the defensive effort, fouls added up for Fort Lewis to close out the quarter trailing 6-0 on three free-position goals.

The Hawks added another goal five minutes into the second quarter, but Fort Lewis got it back two minutes later off the stick of Brown for her third goal of the season on a man-up opportunity. It was a similar story at the 4:33 mark when Rockhurst netted another free-position goal. Fort Lewis responded quickly, taking advantage of a draw control by Kiyokawa to feed the ball to Martinez to earn her sixth goal of the season. From there, the Skyhawks picked up two unanswered goals, these by Dostie and Rymerson, to end the half trailing 8-4.

The Skyhawks' momentum carried into the third quarter with another goal from Dostie setting the tone 55 seconds into play. The Hawks countered with a shot of their own, but another Basso save preserved an 8-5 score. The following minutes saw two yellows and a turnover to give Rockhurst chances for two man-up goals to extend the lead to 10-5.

The aggressive style of play continued for much of the quarter, but Martinez wasn't phased and scored a man-down goal to cut the deficit to four goals. Rockhurst mimicked the attempt moments later and scored its 11th goal of the outing on a man-up free position shot. Kiyokawa closed out the quarter with a caused turnover and ground ball pickup to send the teams into the final 15 minutes of play.

The Hawks began the final quarter with two goals, extending the lead to 14-6 before a caused turnover by Rodgers slowed down the pace of play. Unfortunately, the Skyhawks would commit another foul which led to a free position goal to increase the lead to 15-6. Sophomore Diamond Velasco, Rymerson, and Dostie totaled four shots over the following 50 seconds, but none found their way past the keeper as time ticked away. Dostie finally broke through with the game's final goal at the 2:06 mark, and Rodgers ended her campaign with another caused turnover as time expired on the 15-7 game.

Fort Lewis (0-5, 0-2 RMAC) will hit the road for its Spring Break trip to Arizona next week. The Skyhawks will play three games against Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, and Arizona State University from March 24-26.

Original source can be found here.