Trailing 8-6 at the half, the Belmont Abbey women's lacrosse team outscored Bloomsburg 8-6 in the second half, including a string of six unanswered goals, but Bloomsburg pushed its lead to two with 1:48 left to stop the rally as to earn a 14-12 win this afternoon at Alumni Field. Bloomsburg moves to 2-0, while the Abbey drops to 1-4.

Bloomsburg outshot the Crusaders 31-24 as Samantha Mazzie led all scorers with four goals and two assists, while Allie Kakareka added three and one assist. Maggie Canavan and Kim Springman added two goals, while Tia Mazzie, Lyndsey Babilon and Sarah Bennett all had one each. Canavan, Natalie Draham, and Kelsey Metzler all had one assist.

Five different players led the Abbey with a pair of goals, as Brianna Dignan, Susan Kileavy, Laurie Jordan, Tara Chmil and Amanda Jones all found the back of the net twice, while Kristyn Kinsey and Emily Hudgins had single goals apiece. Dignan had a pair of assists while Kileavy and Laura Dowd had one each.

Bloomsburg grabbed an 8-4 first half lead as it scored the first three goals of the game, and added five unanswered after the Crusaders cut its lead in half. The two teams ended the half by trading goals.

The second half was similar to the first, except the Abbey gained the upper hand offensively. After Bloomsburg scored the first four goals of the stanza to move its lead to 12-4, Dignan and Kileavy tallied back-to-back goals on free position shots to cut the lead in half to 12-6. Babilon answered with an unassisted tally to widen the gap to 13-6, but the Crusaders mounted a furious comeback by scoring six unanswered goals in less than six minutes, as Chmil and Jones scored the first two just 25 seconds apart, followed by another Jones goal 1:47 later.

Less than two minutes later, Hudgins cut the lead to three on a free postion shot, and 28 seconds later, Kileavy fed Chmil to pull the Abbey to within two with 8:28 left Kileavy capped the comeback with a goal at the 6:46 mark to bring the Crusaders back to within one at 13-12.

That was all of the scoring until Canavan stopped the bleeding with a goal at the 1:48 mark to push the Bloomsburg lead back to two at 14-12. Canavan wond the ensuing draw control, the 16th for Bloomsburg, but Draham turned it over to the Abbey with 38 seconds left. Belmont Abbey successfully cleared its zone into the Bloomsburg end. Kinsey let fly a shot with three seconds left that goalkeeper Shelby Iezzi stabbed with one second left and held on as time expired.

Bloomsburg won the draw control battle 16-12 and the Abbey held a 24-20 advantage in ground balls. Jones and Jordan led the Abbey with four apiece, while Jones's three caused turnovers led all players. Iezzi led Bloomsburg with four ground balls to go along with six saves. Natalie Crenshaw made ten saves for the Abbey.