SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team saw a valiant comeback fall short in a 10-9 loss to Indiana University (Pa.) Saturday after The Rock's game-tying goal with 17 seconds left was disallowed by what was deemed a violation of the stick-check procedure.
 
Lauren Searles scored on a free position attempt with 17.9 seconds left to tie the game at 10-10 after SRU trailed 10-6 with 5:42 to play. Searles dropped her stick immediately after she scored and went to celebrate with her teammates. After the celebration, she picked her stick up and went to take her position for the draw, but she did not realize that the official had not yet made it over to check her stick. The officials waived off the goal and gave possession to IUP, which ran out the final 17 seconds to win 10-9.
 
The disallowed goal put the finishing touches on a chaotic game that took four hours to complete. The game featured two hours of delays that began with 43 seconds left in the first half after thunderstorms ripped through Slippery Rock. Wind gusts over 40 miles per hour blew the nets around and briefly knocked out the power in the stadium. A game that began at 1 p.m. finally reached its conclusion at 5 p.m.
 
The loss is the first home loss of the season for Slippery Rock, which slips to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division games. Indiana (Pa.) picks up its second straight one-goal win over SRU and improves to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in PSAC West games with the narrow victory.
 
Slippery Rock opened the scoring with a goal from Searles just 1:14 into the first period before IUP put together a 5-0 run to take a 5-1 lead early in the second. The Crimson Hawks maintained a 6-3 edge heading into halftime, which was sandwiched around a pair of delays that added up to two hours.
 
Indiana maintained its three-goal cushion much of the second half and pushed the advantage out to 10-6 with 5:42 to play.
 
From there, Slippery Rock was dominant in the draw circle and rallied back into the game by controlling nearly all of the possession in the final five minutes. The Rock got a goal from Leora Owings with 4:44 to play and made it 10-8 with a goal from Camryn Whipple with 2:08 to go. Sydney Ulmer then took a feed from Charleigh Rondeau and scored with 1:09 to play to set up the finish.
 
IUP won the last draw control, but Slippery Rock forced a turnover and regained possession near midfield before calling timeout with 35 seconds to play. After the timeout, Rachel Mahoney beat three defenders to set up possession in the offensive zone and found Searles, who broke in on goal before play was whistled dead for a shooting space violation on IUP, setting up what appeared to be her game-tying free position goal that would eventually be waived off.
 
The game-tying goal that was disallowed would have been the 25th shot for SRU and gave both teams an even 25 shots in the game. The Rock posted a 14-9 advantage in draw controls, while IUP managed a 21-17 edge in ground balls. Both teams failed on six clear attempts with SRU going 12-of-18 and IUP going 14-of-20.
 
Searles led Slippery Rock with three goals while Rondeau added two goals and two assists to go along with four draw controls and two caused turnovers.
 
Owings, Ulmer, Whipple and Victoria Ziemba each scored one goal to round out the scorers for The Rock, while Ida Modin added one assist to cap the point scorers.
 
Hailey Ohlsen was credited with a team-high three caused turnovers and Nicole Masi added two caused turnovers to lead the defense. Gillian O'Rourke played another strong game in goal, making 11 saves and grabbing five ground balls.
 
IUP was paced by Kathryn Burke with three goals and two assists and Sarah Reustle with two goals, two assists and four caused turnovers. Maddy Schramm made eight saves in goal to earn the win.
 
Slippery Rock will look to put the disappointment from Saturday in the rearview mirror with a pair of games in Erie next week, first visiting Gannon Wednesday for a 4 p.m. game before traveling to Mercyhurst next Saturday.
 
 

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