Contact: Terrence Lollie

VESTAL, N.Y. – The Binghamton women's lacrosse team dropped its season opener to visiting St. Francis (Pa.) 16-12, Sunday afternoon from the Bearcats Sports Complex. The Red Flash were led by a nine-goal performance from junior Danielle Conwell. Binghamton falls to 0-1 on the year and 0-11 in season openers, while St. Francis improved to 1-1 on the season.

"I thought offensively we played well and had a balanced attack (6 different goal scorers)," head coach Tony Zostant said. "We had some trouble executing defensively and gave up a few goals, which I think rattled us a little bit and made it difficult to regain momentum. We looked forward to correcting our mistakes and getting ready for Connecticut here next Saturday."

With the halftime score knotted at 9-9, the Bearcats took the first lead of the second half on a goal from Katherine Hunsberger. The junior midfielder received a pinpoint accurate pass from classmate Kimberly McGeever and found the back of the net, taking a 10-9 lead 2:04 into the final frame.

St. Francis took control from that point on, embarking on a 5-0 run over the next nine minutes to regain a commanding 14-10 lead. Binghamton was unable to slow down the Red Flash attack until McGeever scored her first goal of the season with 14:16 to play.

Over the final 14 minutes of play St. Francis scored two of the final three goals, including the last goal of the game from Conwell for her ninth of the contest.

In an action-packed first half that included a combined 18 goals, the Bearcats quickly fell behind 5-1 with 18:28 to play in the first stanza. From there Binghamton went on a 4-0 run fueled by two goals from senior attack Lis Zuern to even the score at 5-5. The dominating play of Conwell continued as she responded with two more goals to push the Red Flash lead to 7-5.

Binghamton then matched the earlier run with another 4-0 spurt to capture their first lead of the game (9-7) with 4:20 to go in the first half. The run was capped by local Vestal graduate Allie Sabitus' second free position goal of the half. Again Conwell responded for St. Francis scoring the final two goals of the half to even the scoreboard at 9-9 heading into the locker room.

Zuern finished the game with a hat trick, while Casey Bulman, Kristen Stone, Sabitus and Hunsberger all had two goals apiece. Hunsberger and Stone put forth solid all-around efforts also compiling a combined six draw controls, five ground balls and four caused turnovers.

Binghamton controlled the draw circle, picking up 17 of the 30 draws while the two teams were even in the ground ball category, as each grabbed 14 for the game.

Freshman goalie Kara Pafumi made nine saves in her debut between the pipes for the Bearcats.

The Bearcats return to action next Saturday, March 3 when they host Big East member Connecticut at noon from the Bearcats Sports Complex. BU is 0-2 all-time versus the Huskies.
NOTE: Binghamton's Lindsay Vona was awarded two Yellow Cards during the game. St. Francis' Kate Simmons had one Yellow Card.