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Squad Falls Behind Early, Can't Catch Rowan
Junior Brianne Brennan put up a guady stat line despite playing with a broken thumb in the second half Tuesday.

Grantham, PA — After registering a split in its first MAC Conference weekend, the Messiah College women’s lacrosse team could not hang a defeat on non-league foe Rowan University Tuesday afternoon, dropping a 14-8 decision at Anderson Field.

Messiah (4-5) found the going most difficult in the first half of play against the Profs, being out-shot by a 20 to eight difference while committing 11 of its total 16 turnovers on the day. The result was a 9-3 halftime lead for Rowan (8-2), which recorded its seventh straight win with the decision.

“Even though we had more than half of the draws, Rowan played us hard in the midfield and caused us to turn over the ball quite a bit,” said Heather Greer, Messiah head coach. “They doubled us and we just didn't move the ball very well, so they came up with the ball quite a bit.”

Rowan made good use of its aggressive defense early, scoring the games first three goals before allowing Messiah freshman Kara Geiman to stop the bleeding at the 21:47 mark. Geiman’s unassisted goal was followed by the Profs’ scoring three of the game’s next four tallies, however, leading by a 6-2 score with 11:13 to play in the first half.

A third first-half goal from Geiman at the 10:35 mark was again met with three straight goals from the visitors, and Greer was looking at her team's largest deficit of the season at halftime.

“It was hard to see our team start to try and do things on their own (during the first half),” Greer said. “We all know you can't make things happen individually. We need each other and that is what we focused on in the second half.”

Messiah atoned for some of its errors following Greer’s halftime speech, getting 16 second-half shots to Rowan’s nine. The Falcons also turned the ball over just five times in the final 30 minutes, forcing 11 Profs’ mistakes.

Three more scores from Geiman and solo tallies from seniors Jessica VanHook and Bethany Moskevitz were not enough, however, as Messiah traded second-half goals with Rowan for the eventual 14-8 defeat. Geiman finished with a career-high six scores on nine shots, collecting a career-high five draw controls as well. Sophomore Betsy Caprio led the team with three caused turnovers, while junior Jen Venter came up with nine saves in cage.

The Falcons’ toughness was apparent in the play of junior Brianne Brennan, as the defender recorded three draw controls, two ground balls and two caused turnovers, all while playing the final few minutes of the game with a broken thumb.

“It was a better performance in the second half but not enough to climb back from the six-goal deficit,” Greer said. “I was so proud of Bri out there on the field today. She is a passionate player who wants to make the sacrifice to play, and is always giving 100 percent whether it be in practice or a game. I love that heart of hers. Kara continues to stomp through defenses by scoring but what I loved to see was her getting feisty on the draw and coming up with five of them. We’re learning with each game and beginning to trust each other more, and I think we have our best lacrosse ahead of us.”

Messiah will next return to conference play Thursday, when the team travels to Arcadia University. Game time is set for 4 p.m.