A stretch of seven unanswered goals ended a four-game winning streak for the Skyhawks.
Playing in their final game in a spring break road trip to Michigan, the Fort Lewis College women’s lacrosse team was throttled 16-5 by Grand Valley State of Allendale, Michigan.
FLC only trailed 6-3 at halftime after receiving two goals from Ellie Carpenter and another from Rebecca Miller. The Skyhawks (5-2, 1-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) remained three goals back at 7-4 thanks to a goal by Taylor Cabrera on a free-position shot with 26 minutes, 32 seconds to play.
After that, it was all Lakers (4-4), as Erika Neumen led the team to a scoring onslaught. Neumen scored six goals and had one assist. Kira Dosenberry, Brooke Ingraham and Rachel Leibovitz all had two goals for the Lakers.
Jan Vertner ended the Lakers’ scoring run at seven in a row when she scored with 2:26 remaining in the game, ending a stretch of more than 24 minutes without a goal in the second half. Vertner was assisted by Nikki Fry.
Grand Valley State tacked on one more goal with 1:01 to play, when Molly McGeeney got on the scoreboard after a free-position shot was set up by a foul on Carpenter.
FLC was outshot 33-17 and lost the groundball battle 30-21. FLC also turned it over 23 times to 19 for Grand Valley, and the Lakers won 13-of-23 draw controls.
The Skyhawks’ defense struggled to keep the ball out of its zone, completing only 12-of-23 clearing attempts.
FLC will return home to play Colorado Mesa in an RMAC game at 1 p.m. April 4 at Ray Dennison Memorial Field in Durango.
The Skyhawks went 2-1 on its Michigan trip with wins against Davenport University and Aquinas College.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
