Coming off a 20-9 win over Marist, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team made it back-to-back wins Wednesday evening by defeating Colgate 16-15 in a highly contested matchup. After trailing for the majority of the first half, the Bearcats went on a seven goal run from the end into the third to the fourth to regain the lead at 15-13. Despite a late goal from Colgate to cut BU‘s advantage to one, the visitors held on to secure the win.

“I’m proud of the way our team battled today,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “Coming from a deficit isn’t easy. This team showed that we can make adjustments and stay composed in any situation. Today showed a lot of grit and the way they rally around each other in challenging situations.”

Binghamton (2-2) struck first when senior midfielder Kristen Scheidel found the back of the net. Colgate (0-3) responded with three goals of its own to take a 3-1 lead — forcing a BU timeout. Coming out of the timeout, senior attack Madison Murphy capitalized on a free position opportunity to make it a 3-2 game. The Raiders and Bearcats then traded scores, each finding twine two times as the visitors trailed 5-4 at the end of the first period.

“This team believes in each other and believes that we are capable of anything we put our minds to,” Allen said. “We showed that today and never gave up at any point.”

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued in the second period as Colgate kicked off the period with a goal to take a 6-4 lead. Then, the Bearcats bounced back with two goals courtesy of Scheidel and junior midfielder Abigail Carroll to tie the game at six. Despite this, the Raiders bounced right back, finding the back of the net twice more to go up 8-6 lead. Two minutes later, after a free position goal from senior midfielder Hayley Weltner, the Raiders scored two consecutive goals to maintain a lead at 10-7 going into halftime.

“We talked at halftime about having a championship mindset and finding a way to win,” Allen said. “That’s exactly what they did. We played with grit, and it gave us the momentum we needed.”

Coming out of halftime, Colgate got on the board quickly with a goal just 42 seconds in to make it 11-7. BU’s first goal of the second half came from a free-position goal from freshman midfielder Mia Forte, to cut the Raiders’ lead to 11-8. The Raiders then scored two more goals to make it 13-8. Not long after, the momentum swung in the Bearcats direction as the visitors snuck five straight goals past the Colgate goalkeeper to knot the game at 13 going into the fourth period.

“The energy and execution we showed in the third and fourth quarters were critical to our win today,” Allen said. “The draw controls were a big part of that swing in momentum thanks to [Weltner]. She was integral to our success with a huge 10 draw control day.”

The Bearcats’ offense stayed hot, beginning the fourth period with two goals from Weltner and junior attack Olivia Muscolino which extended the BU run to seven unanswered goals, making it a 15-13 game. After exchanging goals once again, with the score at 16-14 in favor of BU, the teams entered a nine minute scoreless period until Colgate scored to cut BU’s lead to 16-15. However, Binghamton held on, securing a 16-15 victory over Colgate on the road.

“While it wasn’t pretty at times on our end today, we never gave up,” Allen said. “This is a resilient group and we need to keep finding ways to win.”

Six Bearcats scored multiple goals in the victory. Carroll, Weltner and Scheidel scored a hat trick while Muscolino, Forte and Murphy had two goals each. Allen addressed how the balanced scoring ultimately helped BU attain the victory.

“We play best when we play together and have multiple threats on the field,” Allen said. “Today was indicative of that, and I’m really proud of the way they shared the ball.”

Binghamton will return home to take on Siena as it continues its nonconference slate. First face-off is set for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.