UALBANY WOMEN’S LACROSSE: Great Danes suffer frustrating fourth loss against No. 23 Brown

ALBANY, N.Y. — For UAlbany women’s lacrosse, the early season slate has been a gauntlet. It didn’t get any easier on Tuesday afternoon at John Fallon Field, as the Great Danes suffered a frustrating fourth consecutive defeat at the hands of the Ivy League’s No. 23 Brown Bears, 14-10. While the Great Danes have nothing to hang their heads about with this tough schedule, losing seldom if ever feels good.

Great Danes head coach Katie Thomson delivered a strong message to her squad postgame and reiterated she believes the best is yet to come for her group that’s still attempting to make it all click.

“This is just working with this new group and putting all the pieces together,” Thomson said.

“I think we struggled with valuing the ball and that’s something that we really need to clean up but we will and we know we have the pieces here, Thomson continued regarding being edged on turnovers (19-14), ground balls (24-14), draws (16-11) and trying to be better on clears.

“So we’ll figure it out, we know we will. We believe that we just gotta keep fighting, [and] keep giving our full effort for those full 60 minutes,” Thomson added on working to play a complete game.

Some of those early turnovers helped the Bears win the possession battle and cash in with two early goals from Julia Ford. Adding to the Bears’ advantage in the first frame was Mia Mascone, posting her first goal on a hat-trick afternoon.

The Great Danes were finally able to break through the Bears’ midfielders and defense, as Katie Pascale spun through the defense for the tally at the 6:11 mark.

Yet, less than a minute later, Mascone would answer, followed shortly thereafter by Greta Criqui, making it 5-1.

Toward the end of the frame, Pascale inched the Great Danes closer, netting her eighth goal of the season from the free position with a nice fake as well.

Great Danes keeper Grace Cincebox held her own with a 12-save day, including five stops from the first frame into the early second stanza, keeping the score at 5-2.

Drawing UAlbany closer in the second stanza was Kloey Roos, burning down the field, cutting the deficit to 5-3, midway through the quarter. Roos would connect again late in the frame, cutting to the net and taking a flawless feed from Bryar Hogg to beat Brown keeper Claire Mahoney.

However, the Bears would take a 7-4 loss into the locker room.

Trailing 8-4 early in the third quarter, Courtney Rowe provided a spark for the Great Danes attack.

Rowe charged hard to the net and buried one at the 12:06 mark. Rowe accompanied her teammates Pascale and Roos by tallying twice, patiently waltzing in to find the net to cut the deficit to 8-6.

“Court had a great game. She really took the opportunity that she had, was getting to the middle, driving hard. She’s so fast and aggressive, so just loved how hard she was going and finishing today, so really proud of her,” Thomson noted on Rowe’s stellar performance.

While UAlbany crept back, Brown would reel off three consecutive markers to push their advantage to 11-6.

The Great Danes blunted that run with Allie Maloney’s first goal of the season from the free position, late in the quarter.

In the fourth frame, the Great Danes answered an early Bears’ score with a bit of a run of their own. Emma Weaver tickled the twine off a feed from Rowe. Then Rowe took things into her own hands, wrapping around the net and going low for the hat trick.

After a Carly Camphausen marker for the Bears, Rowe capped off her four-goal outing from the free position for her seventh goal of the campaign, drawing the Great Danes within three with 4:20 remaining.

Yet, after the Great Danes had a solid opportunity that was stonewalled by Mahoney, the Bears’ would salt it away on a Nathalie Ahn tallie with fewer than two minutes on the clock.

Postgame, Rowe spoke about what she and her teammates need to improve upon to get in the win column.

“We came out to a slow start. We needed to get going and get that fire under us and just came up short a little bit. We gotta pick it up. We reflected a lot. [We have to] fix some things and move forward,” Rowe commented.

“I think we have some work to do in the clear but that’s one of our keys that we’re going to focus on the next few practices before [the] next game, so just breaking back to the ball harder, taking care of the ball,” Rowe continued.

“We just gotta put a lot of extra work in the next few practices, reflect on these last few games and we really need to turn it around, just focus on small things,” Rowe explained.

Thomson provided this additional assessment and belief in her team as they turn toward another tough opponent at No. 3 James Madison on Sunday.

“We’re really focused on being the best team that we can be. It’s a long season, it’s still February. We’re just working at it to figure things out and again we believe in this group and know we have so much talent and connection here, so we’re just working on having it come together and then the results will take care of themselves once we figure things out,” Thomson added.