April 1, 2008

Final Stats

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Carol Donohue (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) tacked on another four points to her impressive season total and Alison Heffernan (Malvern, Pa./Agnes Irwin School) scored three times, but Bucknell saw its three-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday night at Graham Field with a 16-12 loss to a talented Drexel team.

Freshman Julia Braun (Tomkins Cove, N.Y./North Rockland) had a goal, three assists, five ground balls and three caused turnovers for the Bison, who fell to 5-4 in a game that was twice delayed by lightning and took more than two-and-a-half hours to complete.

Jessica Bill registered four goals and an assist for Drexel (8-3), which had already beaten Patriot League upper-division teams American and Lehigh. Kaitlin Keegan added two goals and two assists, while Gwenna Johnson, Katie Bradley and Becca Drylie-Perkins each tossed in two goals.

The two teams traded goals throughout the first 13 minutes of the game, and the Bison led three different times in the early going, the last at 3-2 on Donohue's goal off a feed from Becca Devine (Arlington, Va./St. Stephen's & St. Agnes) at the 18:18 mark.

Drexel took command less than two minutes later, when Bradley and Bill scored just 18 seconds apart to give the Dragons the lead for the first time. That ignited an 8-0 run wrapped around the first weather delay. Bill's fourth goal of the half gave Drexel a 7-3 lead with 11:04 remaining, when the lightning alarm halted play for 26 minutes.

Sam Berger and Keegan scored less than two minutes after the game resumed, and Katie Lawson's 8-meter shot with 5:58 left in the half made it 10-3. The Dragons had an 11-4 lead at halftime, but another storm kept the teams in the locker room for an extra 30 minutes.

Drexel led by as many as nine goals at 15-6 midway through the second half, but the Bison, who rallied from an 11-3 deficit to defeat Ohio State on Friday, made things interesting down the stretch.

Bucknell finished the game on a 6-1 run. Paige Kasschau (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) scored twice in a row to make it 15-9, then after Bradley scored with 7:22 left, Donohue found the net twice in 53 seconds to make it 16-11.

With less than four minutes remaining, Bison goalie Alyssa DeLorenz (Garland, Texas/Plano East) made the last of her 12 saves. About 20 seconds elapsed while she searched for an outlet pass, and finally she launched a 60-yard strike that hit Lauren Deitrich (Collegeville, Pa./Hill School) in stride for a breakaway goal. DeLorenz's first career assist cut the deficit to 16-12 with 3:10 left.

Bucknell won the ensuing draw but quickly turned it over, and Drexel was able to run out the clock.

Deitrich, an all-conference defender, had two goals and an assist in the game, while Kasschau also finished with two goals.

Drexel outshot the Bison 41-26, including 26-10 in the first half. Drexel won the ground ball battle 23-12 and had only 14 turnovers to Bucknell's 22, but the Bison finished with a 16-14 edge in draw controls.

Bucknell is back in action on Saturday with a key Patriot League contest against Colgate at 1 p.m. at Graham Field. A video Webcast of the game will air live on BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.

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