ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's lacrosse team was defeated by Russell Sage Colleges on Saturday afternoon at Yunevich Stadium, 15-4.
 
Sage fired off 46 shots with 39 on target, in which first-year Saxon (1-2, 0-1 Empire 8) goalie, Alyssa Piechota (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) made 24 saves to tie the Alfred University school record, held by Shannon Gray '18 against Wilkes University on March 22, 2016. Her biggest highlight of the day was the breaking of the school record in single game ground balls as she scooped 13 of them, breaking the oldest single game school record remaining, held by Leigh McKinley '99 as she had 12 against Allegheny on March 27, 1996, marking the 25^th anniversary of the record being set.
 
"Our defense had some great stops, and Alyssa [Piechota] had another amazing game in net," Head Coach Rebecca Streeten said. "She came up with many critical saves and ground ball pickups. When she was able to clear the ball out quickly, she did a great job of finding her teammates open up the field."
 
Sophomore Brenna Turner (Bentonville, AR/Bentonville) scored all four of the Saxons' goals with three of them being unassisted. "We did a much better job transitioning the ball to our attacking end," Coach Streeten said. "We pushed the fast break and if it wasn't there, we settled into our offense more smoothly. While our execution of plays wasn't completely there today, we're starting to get a sense of how to work together most effectively and build chemistry on offense."
 
Saturday's matchup looked even for the first 12 minutes of play as Sage and AU were tied at one apiece. The next goal by Sage's Caroline Musinski at 18:48 marked the beginning of a 7-0 scoring spree that lasted until just under two minutes to play in the first. Turner directed the ball on the restart after that goal to sophomore Madeline Shaw (Buffalo, NY/Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart), winning the draw and allowing Turner to gain possession back before scoring her second of the day with 40 seconds to play before intermission.
 
The Gators opened the second portion of the game with three goals before graduate Bella Ehms (West Seneca, NY/West Seneca West) fed Turner the ball in front of the goalie's circle for the hat-trick goal, bringing the score to 11-3 in favor of the visitors to Yunevich Stadium.
 
Sage scored another three goals before Turner found the back of the net for the fourth time of the day. The Gators would score one last goal with 17 seconds remaining, allowing the running clock to expire before the next draw.
 
Turner's four goals tied for the game-high with Sage's Brittany Gage. First-year Ceci Sherwood (Indiana, PA/Indiana) had a team-high four caused turnovers while Shaw led the Saxons with six draw controls.
 
"Overall, the team worked hard and worked together," Coach Streeten said. "We're looking forward to amping up the intensity next week in practice to better prepare us for the rest of the season."
 
The Saxons will next travel to Utica College on Saturday, April 3 for a 1:00pm start.