April 22, 2008

New Brunswick, NJ (UWIRE) -- The Rutgers women's lacrosse team dropped two tough games to Temple and Notre Dame to close out the 2008 regular season.

The Scarlet Knights lost 20-9 to the Fighting Irish Sunday as the Knights were outplayed early and often as the Irish scored 10 of the game's first 11 goals.

RU managed to cut the deficit to six before the break, but Notre Dame began the second half in the same manner that they did in the first, netting five consecutive goals to put the game away for good.

"We never played our game against Notre Dame, and they were able to capitalize on all of our mistakes we just didn't play well," sophomore attack Brooke Cantwell said.

The game against the Irish was an opportunity for RU to possibly improve their seed in the Big East Tournament.

The Knights dropped a back and forth double overtime match Wednesday to Temple, 10-9.

The Temple game was a back and forth game with responsive tallies by both sides, with regulation ending in a 9-9 tie.

In the first overtime period, the Owls held the ball and RU's Sandra Abel saved a shot with 56 seconds to play. The Knights had a good look with a few seconds left, but Temple goalkeeper Bridget McMullen made a game-saving stop of her own.

Finally, with 1:09 to play in the second overtime, Temple's Whitney Richards scored her 37th goal of the season on a free position shot to put the Owls ahead for good.

RU's Nina Frankoski and Michelle Poole both had good looks in the last minute but both shots were off target and Temple picked up the win.

After the losses, the Knights fell to 7-9 on the year and 2-3 in Big East play. RU will be the fourth seed in the tournament and face off against top seeded Syracuse, a team that beat them 18-6 during the regular season.

"We didn't play our game against them this season, so we are definitely going have to come out fired up," sophomore midfielder Mary Cryan said. "We have nothing to lose, so we are going to give it our all. It's an opportunity to prove ourselves."

(C) 2008 Daily Targum via UWIRE