HAMILTON – Preseason All-Patriot League selections Isabel Kreitler (Fairfield, New Jersey) and Haley O'Hanlon (Garden City, New York) combined to score nine goals Saturday afternoon as the Colgate women's lacrosse team opened the 2017 season with a 14-11 win over the Vermont Catamounts at Beyer-Small '76 Field.
 
Kreitler tied her career-high with five goals in a game after achieving the feat last season, also in the season-opener against the Catamounts. Kreitler accounted for four of Colgate's five first half goals as she scored the first four Raider goals of the season.
 
O'Hanlon led the Raiders in the second half as she scored all four of her goals in the final half of the game, finishing the game with five points against Vermont to go along with a game-high six draw control wins.
 
After Kreitler scored the first goal of the game with a man-up, free position goal just 1:13 into the game, Vermont answered back with four consecutive goals by different players over the next 12 minutes to take a 4-1 lead with 17:08 left in the first half.
 
Kreitler pulled the Raiders within a goal at 4-3 with back-to-back goals before the Catamounts reclaimed a two-goal lead with 7:19 left in the first half.
 
Colgate scored a pair in the final 2:04 of the half to tie the game heading into half time, with Kreitler netting her fourth of the half and Alissa Masini (Gillette, New Jersey) tied the game with 36.1 seconds left before halftime.
 
Coming out of the half, Colgate scored a pair of goals in the first 2:18 to claim the lead for good, with tallies by O'Hanlon and Natalie Washuta (Chatham, New Jersey) to claim a 7-5 lead.
 
Vermont added another goal from Alison Bolt before Kristen Brigagliano (Brightwaters, New York) and O'Hanlon scored within 39 seconds of each other to make it 9-6 with 21:05 left in the half.
 
Over the next 4:37 of the second half, the two teams combined to score seven goals with Colgate scoring four of them to take a four-goal lead, tied for their largest of the game. Brigagliano capped off the Colgate scoring with 3:27 to go in the second half to secure the Raiders' first season-opening victory since beating Vermont on Feb. 16, 2013.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 14, Vermont 11
 
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Raiders win their first season opener since Feb. 16, 2013 to improve to 1-0 while the Catamounts lose their third straight to fall to 0-3.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Kreitler led the Raiders with five goals and one assist for six points to tie her career high for goals in a game
-O'Hanlon also tied her career-high with four goals Saturday afternoon while her six draw controls were the second most she has tallied in a game
-Brigagliano matched her career total with two goals on Saturday to give her four in her career and also added an assist for her first career three-point game
-Masini and Payton Gabriel (Lakewood, Colorado) each scored their first career goals
-Washuta filled the stat sheet with a goal, two ground balls and three caused turnovers
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Colgate won most of the statistical battles, particularly with a 32-21 shots advantage, including 25-17 in shots on goal
-The Raiders also had a 12-8 edge in ground balls and 14-13 advantage in draw controls
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Heather Young
"It always feels really good, Vermont's gotten our number the three out of four years so it's really good for us to come out hard, get some of those first game jitters out of the way in the first 20 minutes and really settle into our offense at the end of the first half then really explode in the second half."

"For us to be able to tie that up [before halftime] and come back from that deficit was awesome. I'm really proud of them."

"[Isabel and Haley] are such great leaders on the offensive end for us, so being able to look to your leaders have the days they did today is unbelievable. Isabel starting off our scoring with the first four goals and Haley coming back to get four in the second half is awesome."

UP NEXT
The Raiders continue their three-game homestand to open the 2017 season against Binghamton on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. at Beyer-Small '76 Field.