Pitt lacrosse (2-1) bounced back after a fourth period collapse on Thursday to defeat Siena (1-1), 13-11, on Saturday. Pittsburgh used a strong second period to control the game after falling behind to end the first.
Siena scored first but a pair of goals by Pitt’s Camdyn O’Donnell and Talia Zuco gave Pitt an early 2-1 lead. Siena tied that up a few minutes later though Pitt had the momentum after that.
For an approximately five-minute stretch Pitt outplayed Siena in every aspect but the scoreboard, outshooting them 4-2 with more ground ball pickups and successful clear attempts to boot. However, it was Siena that scored the final goal of the first quarter to give them a 3-2 lead heading into the second.
Just 1:15 into the second period, Pitt tied things up on a goal by Dylana Williams. Less than a minute later, O’Donnell scored her second goal of the game to retake the lead. The second quarter was key for Pitt, who outscored Siena 5-2 to give them a 7-5 lead at halftime.
This was despite being outshot 12-8 as Pitt got a great second period performance from goalie Hannah Van Middelem who had seven of her 15 saves in the period. Furthermore, the Pitt offense was more accurate with their shots with all eight of them being on goal, not to mention that Pitt took advantage of Siena miscues with a pair of power play goals in the period.
Siena wouldn’t retake the lead for the rest of the game, but they did tie the score up twice in the third period. The first time, Pitt had extended their lead to 8-5 on a goal by Ava Washington before Siena went on a 3-0 run to tie things up at 8-8.
Washington scored another goal to end that run but was followed by a Siena goal to tie things up again. Meave Murray gave Pitt back the lead though for the final time at 10-9 and kicked off a 3-0 run that went into the fourth period and iced the game. By the game’s closure, Pitt won 13-11.
The win is a nice rebound for Pitt after falling apart in the fourth period against Binghamton when a back-and-forth game ended on a 6-0 run by Binghamton, who won 11-5.
In this game, Siena threatened a comeback on their 3-0 stretch, but Pitt was able to close out Siena. It was a nice improvement from Thursday’s game, as the team was the one’s being closed out and couldn’t recover from a hot stretch of play by Binghamton like they did against Siena.
Van Middelem finished with 15 saves on 26 attempts for a .577 save percentage. As stated, her performance in the second period especially was key for the team’s victory. Emily Coughlin was key on the defensive side, with six ground ball recoveries, five draw controls and two created turnovers.
Offensively, seven different players scored for Pitt with O’Donnell leading the way with three goals. Only two of those goals were assisted with the assists coming from Coughlin and Molly Carter.
Pitt is now set to start ACC play against No. 4 Syracuse (2-0) at Highmark Stadium this Saturday at noon.
The top-five Orange could very well be the No. 1 team in the country with a pair of top-five wins to start this year against No. 4 Northwestern and No. 2 Maryland. They play Binghamton on Monday before playing Pitt.
