Gulls battle but fall to Bates in home opener

BEVERLY, Mass. --  Endicott opened their home women's lacrosse season on Wednesday afternoon against a tough and hungry opponent in Bates College, and despite competing hard, suffered a 12-7 defeat at Endicott Stadium to drop their record to 1-1.

The Bobcats, who get their first win of the year and improve to 1-3, scored five of the game's first six goals, and then held off the Gulls each of the five times that Endicott pulled to within three scores.

Kelly Tierney (South Hadley, Mass.) scored twice and had two assists to lead Endicott, while Bates, who had a 35-19 shot advantage, was paced by four goals from freshman Emma Brinkman (Rye, N.Y.).

Junior goalie Rachel Socolow (Westford, Mass.) made 14 stops, many of them on point-blank efforts in the second-half to keep the Gulls within striking distance.

Brinkman scored twice in a three minute span, sandwiched around a goal by Bates junior Wally Pierce (Weston, Mass.), who scored three times for the Bobcats, as the visitors jumped out to a 5-1 lead after Callie Murphy (Woburn, Mass.) had tied the game at a goal apiece for the Gulls.

Tierney's first goal stopped the Bates run and Holly Davis (Guilford, Conn.) scored her only two goals late in the second half to twice keep the deficit at three scores. Pierce and Endicott senior Caitlin Pratt (Bow, N.H.) traded goals to make the halftime score 8-5 in favor of the visitors.

The second half saw considerably less offense, with Tierney and sophomore Siri Mason (Williamstown, Mass.) the only Gulls to find the back of the net. Brinkman opened and closed the frame with goals and Pierce added her third, with Blair Shrewsbury (Boxford, Mass.) also connecting on a free-position goal for the visiting Bobcats.  

Endicott had a 13-9 edge in caused turnovers, led by the work of Kelsey Barnes (Mendham, N.J.), who forced four miscues and Rachel Campos (Hingham, Mass.), who had three caused turnovers and grabbed four ground balls, helping the hosts to a 23-18 advantage in that department.

The Bobcats had the better of the draws, however, taking 15 of them to just six by the Gulls. Linnea Fulton (Bristol, R.I.) and Pierce combined for seven draw controls, while Davis's four paced the Gulls.

In net for Bates, freshman Hannah Jeffrey (Greenwich, Conn.) made eight saves on fifteen shots on goal.

The Gulls will now travel to Rochester, N.Y. this weekend for two games, starting with a Friday evening contest at Nazareth (5:00 pm). Sunday Endicott will take on Rochester Institute of Technology in a 3:00 PM face-off.

The Bobcats return to their NESCAC schedule, travelling to Middletown, Conn. for a Saturday showdown with Wesleyan.