NEWARK, Del.- The La Salle lacrosse team fell 12-7 at Delaware on Tuesday night. Senior Katelyn Fay and junior Allee Ilgenfritz both scored a pair of goals on the evening for the Explorers.
 
La Salle won the ground ball battle, and forced Delaware to commit 21 turnovers on the evening but it ultimately wasn't enough. Ilgenfritz also added two assists, a ground ball and two caused turnovers on the evening.
 
"Delaware is a tough team and we knew that going in we would have to play a complete game," added head coach Candace Taglianetti Bossell. "We unfortunately struggled in the midfield but on a positive note we showed a lot of improvement in our settled play tonight on both ends."


La Salle jumped out to an early 1-0 lead over the Blue Hens when Ilgenfritz scored her first goal on the season off of a free position shot. Delaware answered right back with six straight goals to take a commanding 6-1 lead, from which they wouldn't look back.
 
Fay got on the board with 25:16 left in the second half off an assist from Ilgenfritz for the senior's third goal of the season. Delaware would score three more to answer Fay's goal to extend its lead to 9-2.
 
Fay scored her second goal on the evening off an assist from senior Allie Burnett with 17:04 remaining in the game to cut the lead to 9-3. The goal was the first in a three goal run for the Explorers.
 
The other two goals in the stretch came from Burnett who scored off an assist from Ilgenfriz for her first goal of the season before Ilgenfritz added one of her own to make the deficit just four at 9-5 Blue Hens.
 
The hosts would add three more goals to regain control of the game at 12-5 before La Salle added two goals in the final 1:06 of the contest to make the final score 12-7. The final two goals came from junior Courtney Woolford and senior Katie Fonte, both of which were scoring their first goals of the season.
 
"I thought our team handled adversity well by killing a 2 man non releasable penalty to start the game due to illegal sticks but we struggle to gain possession," said Bossell. "We turned a corner in the second half by winning some draws and getting more offensive opportunities."
 
Sophomore Lucy Loughlin started in the cage for the Explorers and finished with three saves on the evening. Senior Abby O'Donnell had a game high four ground balls as La Salle won the ground ball battle 20 to 16 on the evening.
 
In addition to Burnett's goal and pair of assists she caused four turnovers on the evening as well as scooped up a ground ball.
 
La Salle returns to action on Tuesday, March 8 as they open up their home schedule by welcoming Robert Morris to McCarthy Stadium with draw slated for 4 p.m.