A late, fourth-period comeback for Wilkes fell short of just one score as the women’s lacrosse team fell 12-11 to Mount Saint Mary on Saturday afternoon. The Colonels have now begun their season at 0-1.

“When I first got here at Wilkes, there was a lot of tension when things went poorly,” said head coach Amber McCarver. “I thought today we stayed poised and stayed united. When things weren’t going our way, we stayed working as a family versus starting to tear each other down.”

The first period began in a snow squall, with flusters of snowflakes falling upon Schmidt Stadium. However, that would not hinder the Colonels from scoring first in the game as senior attacker Camryn Devitt nailed her first goal around the 12-minute mark.

The Knights answered quickly and with authority, scoring three times within a single minute just two minutes after Devitt’s goal. Another Wilkes goal was added at the eight-minute mark by senior midfielder Savannah Bauman. Mount Saint Mary would add two more goals at the three-minute mark and 2-minute mark respectively, putting the Knights on top 4-2 at the end of the first.

“We definitely have worked better now than in past years,” said Devitt. “We took the team morale higher than we usually have. Even though we lost, we were still able to have a good game and played smart.”

Mount Saint Mary opened up the scoring in the second period around the 12-minute mark. The Colonels then attacked swiftly with a goal from senior midfielder Laura Bayzick and two more goals from Bauman. One more goal from the Knights and Devitt’s second goal of the game would put the Colonels trailing 7-6 entering the second half.

The third period was dominated by the Knights as they scored five of the six goals in the frame. The only score by the Colonels came from Devitt’s third goal around the three-minute mark.

Every goal in the fourth period came from the Colonels as they attempted their late-game comeback. Bauman scored her fourth and final goal around the 10-minute mark, which was then followed by first-year attacker Sam Mullen’s first collegiate goal.

Devitt followed Mullen’s goal with two of her own, tallying her amount of goals to five. However, that would be all the Colonels could muster in the final period as they failed to possess the ball again.

“We have to work on our second slides on defense,” said McCarver. “Getting into the offense, we need to be more on the attack mindset and more cognizant of what’s going on and how much is left on the clock. Especially in the last 30 seconds of that game, we should have been pressuring more to get the ball back.”

The Colonels’ next opponent is Marywood as the Pacers travel to the Ralston Athletic Complex to play a 6 p.m. matchup on Feb. 22.

“Within the midfields, we need to be a little more confident in our transitions,” said Bauman. “If we keep the positivity of the close game and the confidence we had today, we have a good chance of it at least being a close game on Tuesday.”