The 19th-ranked UNH women's lacrosse team defeated Colgate University on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field, 16-11, to remain unbeaten on the season at 4-0.
The loss dropped Colgate to 1-4 on the season, and with the win, the Wildcats have started out the season with four consecutive wins for the first time since the 1989 season.
UNH started the scoring early, grabbing a 1-0 lead when junior Allie Bratton took a pass from sophomore Hayley Rausch and found the back of the net at 27:58.
It didn't take long for the Wildcats to add to their lead, when Rausch scored a goal on a feed from senior Shaunna Kaplan just nine seconds later to make it 2-0.
They further extended their lead to 3-0 just minutes later when freshman Jenny Simpson scored a man-down goal at 24:43.
It looked like a blowout early, but Colgate quickly turned the game around.
Just 30 seconds after Rausch's tally, the Raiders broke up the shutout when sophomore Katie Sullivan scored an man-up goal on a pass from senior Meghan Lawler to make it 3-1.
The Raiders' goal didn't faze the Wildcats, however, as they rang off three goals in just over a minute, giving them a 6-1 advantage with 18:31 left in the first half.
This would be the end of the scoring for UNH in the first half, however, as the Raiders scored three unanswered goals to make the score 6-4 at halftime.
In the second half, Colgate junior Colleen Bubnack made things interesting as she tallied a goal at 26:05 to make it 6-5.
The Wildcats responded right back, scoring a pair of goals in a little over a minute to extend their lead to three at 8-5.
Colgate refused to go away, however, as they scored a pair of goals in under a minute to cut the deficit to one again at 8-7 with 18:54 remaining in the game.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, this would be the closest they would get the rest of the way.
UNH went on to score four of the next five goals, making it 12-8 with 5:58 left in the contest.
Colgate managed to put up three goals before the final buzzer, but they were no match for the Wildcats' scoring attack, which tallied four goals in a span of 1:29 to put the Raiders away.
On offense, the Wildcats were led by Simpson, who notched a season-high five points on the afternoon, with three goals and two assists. Her numbers were enough to earn her America East Player of the Game honors.
"Before the game, I challenged some of our freshman recruits to step up, and Jenny did just that," UNH head coach Michael Daly said.
Besides Simpson, the Wildcats also got contributions from Kaplan and Rausch, who both added four points. Kaplan scored all four of her points on assists, while Rausch scored her points on two goals and two assists.
"My teammates were a big part of my success this afternoon," Simpson said.
Offensively, the Wildcats were sharp throughout the contest as they outshot Colgate, 38-26, on the afternoon. While the offense might've been there, however, their defense was not, which was referred to as porous by head coach Michael Daly.
"It was a grinded-out win, and certainly wasn't our best effort," Daly said. "We didn't execute our game plan on defense."
Simpson agreed with Daly.
"We definitely didn't play our best lacrosse, especially on defense," she said.
Moving forward, coach Daly is confident that the team can figure out their defensive scheme.
They're going to need to figure it out quickly, however, since their next game is a home matchup today against Harvard.
"If we expect to beat Harvard [today], we can't play that kind of defense," Daly said.
UNH squares off with the Crimson at 3 p.m at Memorial Field.
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