READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions women's lacrosse team was unable to overcome a sizable first half deficit as they fell 18-13 to Cabrini in the season opener on Tuesday afternoon at Shirk Stadium.
 
The Lions opened the game by scoring on their opening possession at the 29:33-mark off a free position shot from senior Kelly Baumann. The Cavaliers responded just over two minutes later to level the score at one, but Baumann struck again at the 24:33-mark to put Albright up 2-1. However, turnovers began to add up for the Lions as they went scoreless for a stretch of 21:40. That allowed the Cavaliers to run off seven unanswered goals to go up 8-2 at the 4:11-mark of the first half. Two of the goals during that stretch were free position shots, and the Lions had 12 turnovers. Sophomore Abbie Moist ended the scoreless drought at the 2:53-mark of the first half on a shot from the left side. The Cavaliers responded again with two goals to take a 10-3 with 18 seconds left in the first half. Despite the amount of time left on the clock in the first half, the Lions were able to draw shooting space with four seconds left in the half. Senior Sophia Mantzavinos cashed in on the opportunity with a free position goal to make it a 10-4 game at the half.
 
Albright carried the momentum from the last second goal of the first half to score four-straight free posiyion goals to open the second half, cutting the Cavalier lead down to 10-8 at the 20:53-mark of the second half. The goals were split by a pair of first-year players, Abigail Hai and Chloe Fornoff. The Cavaliers ended the run at the 19:45-mark with a goal to go up 11-8, but the Lions continued to chip away as they tallied back-to-back goals to make it an 11-10 game with 16:25 left in regulation. Hai tallied the first one before sophomore Maddie Taylor scored her first goal of the game off a feed from classmate Ashleigh Tortorice. The teams traded goals to leave the game at 12-11 with 14:26 left in regulation, but the Cavaliers put the game away with five unanswered goals to go up 17-11 at the 4:06-mark. Albright grabbed two more free position shot goals from Hai, and sophomore Lauren China to cut the lead down to 17-13 at the 1:41-mark before the Cavaliers scored one last time in the final minute.
 
The Lions held a slight 28-27 advantage in shots, and a 23-22 advantage in shots on goal. Albright also held a sizable 22-10 advantage in draw controls, a 22-19 edge in ground balls, but had 27 turnovers. Junior goalkeeper Terae Mason suffered the loss after making four saves in the full 60 minutes, while Cavalier goalkeeper Sam Hamalak earned the win after making 10 saves in the full 60 minutes. Eight of Hamalak's saves came in the first half. Hai led the way with four goals in her collegiate debut, while Fornoff added three points behind two goals and one assist. Baumann had two goals before receiving her second yellow card at the 24:33-mark of the first half. Dana Carlson led the Cavaliers with seven points behind four goals and three assists.
 
The Lions will return to action on Saturday, February 22^nd as they will host Bridgewater (Va.) in non-conference action at 12 p.m.