It took the women’s lacrosse team more than 20 minutes to get on the board against the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., Tuesday, but a dominant second half put the Bears back on top as they secured their fifth consecutive win to start the season. Brown (5-0, 2-0 Ivy) and Yale (5-0, 1-0) are the only Ivy League teams that remain undefeated.
The Crusaders (3-5, 1-0 Patriot) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after 15 minutes of play and six turnovers by Brown. Janie Gion ’15 notched Brown’s first goal of the game and was quickly followed by co-captain Bre Hudgins ’14, who scored on a free position shot after Holy Cross’ Sophia Agostinelli committed a penalty. The Crusaders responded by widening their lead back to two on a free position goal of their own. Holy Cross scored again two minutes later to make the score 5-2. Kerianne Hunt ’17 had the last word of the period, scoring with 20 seconds left off an assist from Danielle Mastro ’14 to take Brown into the locker room down 5-3.
The Bears were off to a slow start in an uncomfortable situation after a last-minute change had them scrambling to Worcester earlier than expected. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but was pushed forward to Tuesday. It was also Bruno’s first weekday game.
“I think our pregame process was different,” Hudgins said. “Weekends, we usually go to the Ratty first as a team and not straight to the locker room. It was definitely a good experience. We have two more big weekday games, so hopefully we learned how to bounce back.”
While the Bears usually dominate when it comes to draw controls, their first-half performance in the circle barely eclipsed that of Holy Cross, with five draw controls to the Crusaders’ four. This prevented Bruno from controlling the possession game, as it has done earlier in the season.
For only the second time this year, the Bears entered the second half trailing their opponent. But the team came out of halftime strong, scoring four unanswered goals to kick off the second half, with the first three coming in quick succession over three minutes.
“Our coaches reminded us to focus on the little things that we really pride ourselves on, like the draws and the ground balls,” Hudgins said. “Doing the little things really made the difference.”
Hudgins scored the second half’s first goal, off another free position shot. Ali Kim ’17 followed to tie the game 5-5 with her second goal of the season off an assist from Mastro, who had three assists on the game and ranks third in the Ivy League in that category. Hunt scored two minutes later with a helper from Gion. Natalie Fox ’17 was next, scoring her first collegiate goal off a free position shot. Four of Brown’s nine total goals against Holy Cross were scored by first-years, a testament to the squad’s depth.
With 15 minutes left to play, Holy Cross scored its only goal of the second half on a man-up advantage as Rebecca Dahle ’16 served a yellow card penalty. Veteran co-captains Hudgins and Grace Healy ’14 scored the last two goals of the game, for a final score of 9-6. Hudgins’ goal was her 15th of the season, putting her second in the conference in total goals, and she notched her fourth hat trick of the year.
In the second half, Brown returned to its command over draw controls as Hudgins, Healy, Hunt, Gion and Lauren Toy ’16 combined for seven draw controls to Holy Cross’ one. Eight saves from Kelly Roddy ’15 against the Crusaders contributed to her Ivy-leading total of 38 as well as her league-best save percentage of 57.6 — 6 percentage points ahead of the nearest competitor.
The Bears return home Saturday to take on Central Connecticut State University (2-2) at 1 p.m.
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