MANCHESTER, N.H. (April 20, 2022) – Riding a stretch of four wins in five games in April, the Franklin Pierce University women's lacrosse team headed east on Wednesday night, for a Northeast-10 Conference matchup with intrastate rival and No. 20 nationally ranked Saint Anselm College. Senior Kaitlyn Daly (LaGrangeville, N.Y.) netted three goals, but the Ravens came up just short in a 12-10 defeat.

With the loss, the Ravens fall to 4-9 (4-7 NE10), while the Hawks improve to 7-5 (5-4 NE10) and halt a four-game skid.

Saint Anselm jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the opening stages of the first quarter with a trio of goals in a 53-second span. Upper classmen Lexi Palmisano and Jenna Balboni both converted on unassisted scores, 1:41 and 2:07 into the contest, respectively. Sophomore Jess Sullivan added the third just 23 seconds later, on an assist from senior Annie Richards.

Trailing by three, the Ravens answered with three of their own. The first pair came from senior Morgan Baxendale (Orchard Park, N.Y.), unassisted at 3:32, and off a feed from Daly at 10:14. Daly then netted her first of the game at 10:33. Sullivan and Palmisano both found the back of the net for their second goals of the game to put the Hawks back out front by a pair. Sophomore Gabrielle Oswald (Nedrow, N.Y.) brought it back to within one (5-4) in the final minute of the first, off an assist from graduate student Jenna Cimbron (Bristol, R.I.).

The second quarter was not as productive for the two teams, which combined for only five goals. Saint Anselm extended the lead back to two before the intermission, despite senior Savannah Ernst (American Fork, Utah) scoring her team-leading 38^th goal of the season and graduate student Caroline Lounsbury (Franklin, Mass.) adding one of her own just nine seconds from halftime.

The second half provided more tight play, and Franklin Pierce brought the deficit to a single goal twice in the third quarter. First, while trailing 10-7, Oswald found the back of the net for her second goal of the game while a player down at the 9:41 mark. Cimbron followed with a goal of her own at 9:59 to bring the score to 10-9. After Palmisano's fourth of the day, Daly closed out the quarter off a feed from Cimbron to make it 11-10 heading to the fourth.

The offense would dry up on both sides in the fourth, however. Sophomore Alison Ferullo provided the only goal of the quarter, 4:37 into the stanza, and the Hawks shut things down from there to preserve the 12-10 win.

For Franklin Pierce, Daly (3-1-4) and Baxendale (2-2-4) notched four points each, while Cimbron (1-2-3) added three of her own. Senior Megyn Ayotte (Guilford, Vt.) caused a game-best four turnovers, while fellow senior Madison Leslie (Lewiston, Maine) led all players with four ground balls.

Saint Anselm got four goals apiece from Palmisano and Sullivan, while Balboni led all scorers with five points (2-3-5).

Senior Megan Bacik (Huntington Station, N.Y.) stopped nine of 21 shots faced in the loss (4-3) for Franklin Pierce. Senior Grace Young (7-5) matched the save total with nine, against 19 shots, in the win for the Hawks.

Next up for the Ravens is a road trip to Pleasantville, N.Y., and Pace University, for an NE10 matchup on Saturday, April 23 at 4 p.m.