LOS ANGELES –- The Bates women's lacrosse team scored the first six goals of the game and led 9-7 at halftime in its 2020 season opener, but Occidental battled back in the second half to defeat the Bobcats 19-13 at Jack Kemp Stadium.
Junior Kathryn Grennon (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) led Bates (1-0) with four points on three goals and an assist. First-year Chloe Robinson (North Salem, N.Y.) also chipped in three goals, while junior Margaret Smith (Wilton, Conn.) added three points on two goals and an assist. Sophomore Dana Swartz (North Andover, Mass.) logged a goal and two assists. Robinson and junior Jillian Futter (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) won a team-high five draws each. Futter also caused three turnovers. Senior Avery MacMullen (New Haven, Conn.) scooped up a game-high six ground balls and junior Rachael Deptula (Durham, N.H.) grabbed four ground balls. Deptula played the opening 30 minutes in goal for Bates and made seven saves. First-year Cammie Lavoie (Epping, N.H.) came in for the final 30 minutes and made one save.
Alessandra Pelliccia led Occidental (2-0) with a game-high six goals and added an assist and three caused turnovers. Isabella Litt scored four goals, logged an assist, and won a game-high six draws. Marie Whitmore notched three goals and three assists. Emma Rogers recorded five ground balls. Haley Jones played the opening 16:02 in goal for Occidental and made two saves. Katherine Drake came in for 43:58 and made three stops.
Bates started the scoring in the first minute when Swartz found the back of the net 47 seconds in. senior Caroline Kerrigan (Falls Church, Va.) scored off a feed from Smith in the second minute, and Robinson followed with back-to-back goals. Grennon set up sophomore Kate Loughlin (Portsmouth, N.H.), and then scored a goal of her own off a pass from MacMullen to give Bates a 6-0 advantage with 21:16 on the clock.
Occidental responded scoring the next five straight goals to pull within one. Lauren Di Lella started the run off a feed from Whitmore. Goals by Pelliccia and Annie Dolan came just six seconds apart. Pelliccia and Di Lella both struck again to close out the run with 13:58 left in the first.
Smith tallied back-to-back goals for Bates to give the Bobcats an 8-5 advantage. Pelliccia notched her third goal of the day on a free position shot with 8:29 on the clock. With 3:31 before the break, sophomore Jordyn Tveter (Topsfield, Mass.) gave Bates a 9-6 lead, but Dolan scored off a pass from Whitmore with 1:42 remaining to make it 9-7 at the break.
Pelliccia opened the second half scoring for the Tigers. Grennon found the back of the net after a pass from Swartz to put Bates up 10-8 with 25:41 on the clock. Occidental got goals from Litt and Di Lella to knot the game at 10-10 with 22:39 remaining. Robinson and MacMullen scored just 39 seconds apart to put the Bobcats back on top by two. Then Occidental came storming back with a 9-0 run to build a 19-12 lead. The run started with a goal by Litt at 20:35. She scored two more times in the flurry. Whitmore tallied three goals and an assist, and Pelliccia scored twice in the Tigers' decisive run. Grennon scored for Bates off an assist from Swartz in the final minute for the final score.
The Tigers finished with a 36-28 advantage in shots and a 34-28 lead in ground balls. The Bobcats held a 21-13 advantage on the draw circle. Bates was successful on 11-of-17 clear attempts, while Occidental went 17-for-20 in clears.
The Bobcats are back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 26, when they host Babson for their home opener at 6 p.m.
