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HAMILTON – The Colgate women's lacrosse team and the Lafayette Leopards battled back and forth all game long Saturday afternoon but the Leopards came back to win, 14-13, on Mairead Janzer's game-winning goal with 14.8 seconds left in the second half.
 
Colgate put up a hard fought effort highlighted by Tara Atkinson's (Lloyd Harbor, New York) career-high four goals, and first career hat trick, against the Leopards but came up just short in the battle of Patriot League teams.
 
Kristen Brigagliano (Brightwaters, New York) recorded a hat trick for the second consecutive game to also highlight the Raiders' scoring. In addition, Isabel Kreitler (Fairfield, Connecticut) netted a pair of goals and added an assist for her third consecutive game with at least three points.
 
Colgate got off to a hot start in the first half as Brigagliano tallied her eighth goal of the season just 1:56 into the game followed by Kreitler's 21^st of the season.
 
After a Lafayette goal with 24:27 left in the first half, the Raiders scored four consecutive goals to take a 6-1 lead with 9:31 to go in the half. Atkinson scored two of the Raiders goal in that span with Kreitler and Charlotte Redican (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) chipping in the other goals.
 
The Leopards wouldn't go out without a fight, scoring the final five goals of the first half and the first of the second half to stake themselves out to a 7-6 lead 1:31 into the final half of the game.
 
The Raiders responded fast and furious with three goals in 55 seconds, their fastest three-goal stretch of the season. Haley O'Hanlon (Garden City, New York), Noelle Patterson (Vestal, New York) and Alissa Masini (Gillette, New Jersey) all scored for Colgate in that stretch.
 
Neither team managed to extend the lead to more than two goals after Colgate's 10-8 lead with 22:34 left in the second half as Atkinson recorded the first hat trick of her career.
 
One of the biggest plays of the game came with 15:17 left in the second half as Samantha Croston (Mount Sinai, New York) saved a free position shot from the nation's leading goal-scorer Kristen Wilhelmsen to maintain a 10-10 tie after as Asil Asfour (Eden Prairie, Minnesota) was serving a yellow card.
 
Colgate used the momentum reclaim its two-goal lead with 12:35 left in the half with goals from Atkinson and Brigagliano.
 
Colgate took a 13-11 lead with 7:21 left before Lafayette scored three goals in the final 5:42 to claim the 14-13 win on Janzer's game-winning goal with 14.8 seconds left.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Lafayette 14, Colgate 13
 
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Leopards returned to the win column with its fifth win in the last six games to improve to 7-3 (2-0 Patriot League) while the Raiders fall 4-4 (1-1 Patriot League) with the loss.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Atkinson scored four goals in a game for the first time in her career.
-She had five career goals coming into Saturday and four this season
-Brigagliano tallied her second straight hat trick, and second of her career, for the Raiders
-Kreitler picked up two goals and an assist for three points for her sixth game with at least three points this season
-Kreitler's final goal of the game was the 80^th of her career
-Masini came off the bench to pick up three points for the first time in her career, netting a goal and assisting two more
-O'Hanlon scored for the second straight game and in a game for the seventh time this season
-Natalie Washuta (Chatham, New Jersey) led the team with four groundballs while Madeline Barcia (Manhasset, New York) and Asfour each had three groundballs
-Asfour finished the game nine saves for the third time in her career to tie her career-high
-Patterson scored a goal off the bench for the Raiders, her fourth of the season, and had a career-high five draw controls
-Redican netted her third goal of the season
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Lafayette outshot Colgate 31-26 and 24-16 in shots on goal
-The Leopards held the edge in draw controls, 17-11, while the Raiders had the advantage in groundballs, 18-17
-Lafayette also caused six turnovers compared to Colgate's five.

FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Heather Young
"We started out really well with some great defensive stops and then we were doing what we had on the game plan offensively putting a lot of goals in, being very patient shooters but that was just 20 minutes and we play 60. There were some big lapses in our transition game, a lot of turnovers for us and that hurts you. Kudos to Lafayette who kept pushing and coming back, they played a great game."
 
UP NEXT
The Raiders head on the road for their next two games when they face the Boston University Terriers in Boston at 5 p.m. on Wednesday with the game streamed live on Twitter before traveling to Baltimore to face Loyola (Md.) on Saturday at 1 p.m. with the game on American Sports Network.