After suffering a humbling 22-14 loss on the road, waiting at home for the Bearcats was nationally ranked Vanderbilt University.
The ninth-ranked Commodores overcame a slow first half to rout the Binghamton University women’s lacrosse team 23-11 on Wednesday. Binghamton played strong defense the first five minutes of the first half, not allowing Vanderbilt (10-3) near its net. The Bearcats (1-10) struck first courtesy of sophomore Liz Zuern and added another goal by junior Beth Moore just two minutes later to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Vanderbilt came back strong, scoring three goals in under a minute. The Bearcats utilized a 5-2 run to open up a surprising 7-5 lead with 10:18 to play in the first half. The nationally ranked Commodores responded by scoring seven of the next eight goals to take a 12-8 lead at the break.
‘We wanted to come out, win the draws,’ Binghamton head coach Tony Zostant said. ‘We wanted to come ready to play.’
The second half proved to be a dismal one for the Bearcats. Binghamton struck first on a unassisted goal by junior Ali Castiglie, which cut Vanderbilt’s lead to three. The Bearcats would get no closer for the rest of the game. Vanderbilt scored 11 of the final 13 goals to finish at the final margin.
It was the tale of two halves for the Bearcats. After BU’s prolific offense peppered Vandy sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Willis with 22 shots and eight goals in the first half, the same squad resumed playing its style that has been evident all season long ‘ a stagnant offense. The Bearcats mustered only 12 shots in the decisive second half and produced only three goals.
‘We only played for 30 minutes instead of the whole 60 minutes,’ Zostant said.
Vanderbilt outshot Binghamton 37-34 on the game and held a 21-15 edge in draw controls.
Five different Bearcats scored twice during the game: Moore, Zuern, Castiglie and freshmen Kristen Stone and Katherine Hunsberger.
Vandy senior attack Carter Foote netted a game-high five goals on five shots. Foote now has 31 goals on the season, which is second on the team. Teammate junior attack Katherine Denkler tallied four goals and two assists. Denkler also has 31 goals this season but boasts 12 assists as well. Vanderbilt remains undefeated in league play at 3-0. The Commodores have defeated their American Lacrosse Conference opponents by more than eight goals per game.
The Bearcats are set to resume America East play on Saturday as they travel to face the University of New Hampshire. Face-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
‘We played Vandy well,’ Zostant said. ‘If we always played like this, we will surprise a lot of people.’
‘ Tejas Borse contributed to this report.