Women’s lax wins with last-minute goal

   The University at Albany women's lacrosse team took home a rousing victory on Saturday at New Hampshire, winning on a last-minute goal by Kayla Best to stay tied for first in the America East conference standings.

   Best scored her 35th goal of the year with 40 seconds remaining in the game after New Hampshire (9-5, 3-2 AE) had scored two goals to tie the game up at 12 with 1:56 remaining.

   Best helped the Danes (12-2, 5-0 AE) to stay atop the conference standings in a tie with Boston University, whom they will play in their final game of the season on May 1st. UAlbany won its first game in six trips to New Hampshire.

   UAlbany fought back after being down 5-0 to start the game after the Wildcats came out strong early. They scored the five goals in the game's first 7:11 before Albany responded with two goals of their own to keep the game close. After the Wildcats scored again, Olivia Jarem scored consecutive goals for the Danes to keep it within two. The half finished with the Danes down 7-5.

   A quiet start to the second half ended when UNH scored 7:16 into the period on a goal by Jenny Simpson. That's when UAlbany said enough was enough and took over offensively, scoring five straight goals to take a 10-8 lead.

   The Great Danes dominated on faceoffs all day, leading draw controls on the day 20 to 7. In addition, the Danes were given eight free position shots to UNH's two, showing how often the Danes were around the net. Mel Rorie and Christine Grueniger both had four points on the day, with three of Rorie's four goals coming in the second half.

   Her fourth goal of the day gave UAlbany a 12-10 lead with 6:11 to play but the Wildcats responded nicely. A goal by Hayley Rausch brought them within one and had them fighting hard to tie the game up. The tying goal came off the stick of the Wildcats' Amber Casiano, who tied the game up for the third time on the day.

   The Danes will play BU to determine the conference regular season title.