The home opener was as close as they come for the Fort Lewis College women’s lacrosse team.
At long last, the Skyhawks played at Ray Dennison Memorial Field on Sunday. Their two previous home games scheduled against Colorado College both were postponed, first for weather a week ago and again Friday for COVID-19 issues.
Unbeaten University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (3-0) entered Sunday and built a lead as large as 9-5 in the first half and 11-7 in the second and held on in the final 90 seconds to secure a 13-12 victory.
“We played tough and came up just a little bit short,” FLC head coach Ashley Travis said in a news release. “To come back from four goals down, I was really proud of these ladies for competing against another good team in the RMAC that was picked ahead of us.”
FLC was outshot 35-29 and 29-24 in shots on goal. Averi Basso played all 60 minutes in goal for FLC and made 16 saves.
“For her to have upwards of almost 20 saves is incredible and another stand out performance from Averi,” Travis said. “She was not afraid of the ball, and we talked before the game that UCCS is a team that will fire a lot of shots when they get their hands free. She was ready for them, and if it wasn’t for her performance, there’d have been a lot of more goals scored.”
Madison McGriff was the winning goalie with seven saves and seven goals allowed in 36 minutes of action. Kennedy Travis came on as a substitute and allowed five goals and made five saves.
FLC (1-1) was led in scoring by senior Ann Nelson, who scored four times on five shots. Caprietta Abbadessa scored twice, as did Maren Clark. Liv Crawford added one goal and one assists, as did Nina Polk.
Abby Escandon and Makenna Carter each scored one goal for FLC.
Rebecca Kiyokawa and JoJo Lutz each scooped up five ground balls to lead FLC. Nelson had four draw control wins.
UCCS had a well-rounded offensive attack with Kiera Lowe and Natalie Church each tallying three goals. Chloe Harding had another two goals for the Mountain Lions.
The two games so far this season against conference foes did not count toward the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings. FLC”s next game will, as the Skyhawks will travel to Alamosa to play at noon Saturday.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
