Women's Lacrosse drops double-OT heartbreaker to Delaware

The Mason Women’s Lacrosse team lost a tough double-overtime thriller, 12-11, to the Delaware Blue Hens on Friday night at George Mason Stadium. The Patriots were led by a pair of hat-tricks from junior Emily Ellisen and sophomores Caitlin Formato and Allie Hilderbrandt.

The first half featured various lead changes and ended with Delaware leading 9-7. Mason (3-11, 0-4 CAA) came back in the second half to force overtime on a goal from Hilderbrandt with 2:59 remaining in the game. The first overtime was full of tough defense and turnovers as both team were unable to score the sudden death winner.

However, the Blue Hens came right out in the second overtime and scored the winner off of a nice individual play from Julianna Jeffers.  Jeffers finished the day with three goals and two assists to lead Delaware (7-7, 2-2 CAA).

Mason stormed out of the gates in the first half with a quick unassisted goal from Formato at 29:09.  Mason and Delaware traded the first six goals of the half before the Patriots scored a pair of goals to take a 5-3 lead. From there Delaware went on a run of its own scoring the next four goals to take a 7-5 lead.

Formato broke the streak with a nice individual play of her own to bring Mason closer at 7-6, but the teams traded goals to end the half at 9-7.

Following a first half that featured 16 combined goals, both teams came back with a strong defensive effort in the second half. Mason made a run late to score the final three goals with ten minutes remaining to send the game into overtime.

Mason had a chance to win it with 17 seconds remaining, but a shot from Formato went just wide of the net. That was the closest Mason would get to the Delaware goal as Jeffers took a pass from Morgan Leonard and weaved through the Mason defense before depositing a laser behind Mason keeper, Brittany Pastrana.

Pastrana finished the night with five saves on 12 shots.
Joining Formato, Hilderbrandt and Ellisen on the scoring sheet were freshman Anna Kopecka and junior Kara Bowman, who both contributed one goal apiece. Senior Madalyn Jamison contributed an assist.

The Mason defense was backboned all night by strong efforts from seniors Lauren Gannon and Hayley Berger.

The Patriots come back to George Mason Stadium on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. to take on the Towson Tigers. It will be the final home game of the seniors’ careers, a list that includes Gannon, Jamison, Berger, Chelsea Gamble, Caitlin Hoffen, Maureen Onda and Amy Yatsuk.