Box Score St. John Fisher 13, Utica 4

Rochester, NY (4-6-13) – The Utica College women's lacrosse team lost, 13-4, Saturday afternoon to Empire 8 rival St. John Fisher, on the road, at Growney Stadium.  Sophomores Louise Steele-Norton (Avondale, PA/Millbrook School) and Megan Kane (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville) led the way for UC each with one goal and one assist.

UC falls to 6-2 overall including a 1-1 mark in the Empire 8 while the Cardinals improve their season record to 8-2 and remain undefeated in league play at 2-2.  The Pioneers remain on the road and are right back on the field Sunday as they cross town to face Nazareth College for a 1p.m. afternoon face off.  Fisher continues its home stand as it welcomes E8 opponent Ithaca College Sunday also set for 1 p.m.

Fisher jumped out to commanding 5-0 lead over the first 17 minutes of action before UC got on the board.  The Pioneers scored their first goal of the afternoon with 5:39 remaining in the first half as Kane was set up by Steele-Norton for her team leading 24th tally of the season. The Cardinals answered with back-to-back goals at 3:03 and another just before the horn with .01 remainging to take a 7-1 advantage into the break. Fisher out shot UC 16-3 and had only five turnovers to Utica's 10 in the first 30 minutes of play.

The home team opened up the scoring in the second half, just under five minutes into play, and led 8-1 before the Pioneers began to gain some momentum.  UC quickly answered with back-to-back scores at 24:30 and 17:06 to cut the lead to five, 8-3.  Freshman Courtney Wheeler (Ava, NY/Rome Free Academy) netted her 15th goal of the season, unassisted, at 24:30 followed by junior Julia Primps (Ossining, NY/Ossining) fourth season score set up by classmate Vanessa Maines (Boxborough, MA/Acton-Boxborough Regional), at 17:06.

After a Fisher score at 12:39, UC's Steele-Norton would convert a man-up goal set up from Kane to cut the deficit back to five, 9-4.  However, the Cardinals would prove tough as they ran away with four unanswered scores to close out the win. UC was outshot 32-10 by Fisher and lost 11-of-28 draws on the day.

Senior goalie Stephanie Belanger (Lewiston, ME/Lewiston) stopped 13 shots while allowing 13 goals as she is now 6-2 on the season while Cardinal goalie Carolina Trpcevski allowed four goals and tallied two saves in the victory.