COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Saint Michael's College women's lacrosse team turned a five-goal deficit into a two-goal lead with fewer than eight minutes to go on Monday afternoon before losing to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, 14-12, at Mountain Lion Stadium. The Purple Knights, who were playing their first game ever west of Pennsylvania, are 0-2, while the Mountain Lions improved to 4-3.

Junior Alex Vincent (Rush, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women) potted four goals with an assist and four draw controls for Saint Michael's, while senior Kealy Moyna (Yonkers, N.Y./The Ursuline School) collected two goals and two assists, improving her career point total to 95 and moving into a tie for 11th in program history with 36 assists. Classmate Ashley Dineen (Somers, N.Y./Canterbury School) and sophomore Kaelyn Oliver (Canton, Conn./Canton) both scored twice, and first-year Kaitlyn Waystack (Topsfield, Mass./Masconomet Regional) tallied once and handed out an assist.

Junior Kate Martin (Mattapoisett, Mass./Bishop Stang) scored and controlled four draws, and first-year Olivia Krause (Bow, N.H./Bow) dished two assists. Sophomore Katrina Pietz (Brentwood, N.H./Exeter) notched four ground balls and two draw controls, while junior Annie Martin (Mattapoisett, Mass./Bishop Stang) posted four draw controls. First-year Victoria Putnam (East Falmouth, Mass./Saint Mark's School) made two saves with two ground balls and yielded the first eight goals in 22:37 but took a no-decision, as classmate Alexis Bower (Elmira, N.Y./Horseheads) recorded seven stops in her college debut while yielding the final six tallies to take the loss. With her 48th career caused turnovers, Annie Martin tied Lauren Piekarski '05 for sixth in program history.

Sophomore Vanessa Nelson scored six goals, going 4-of-6 on free-position tries, for Colorado-Colorado Springs, adding four draw controls, and first-year Natalie Church netted four goals with an assist, also claiming four draws. Classmate Emma Becker made eight stops for the win.

While playing the second of three games in four days, Saint Michael's yielded the first four goals by 25:31 of the opening half, with Nelson scoring two, and trailed 7-2 by 15:01 following Nelson's fourth tally. Vincent netted her first goal at 10:33 off of a Waystack feed, but first-year Sydney Malcolm reestablished the five-goal cushion 3:10 later. The Purple Knights came alive with the next six goals, with Kate Martin tallying at 40 seconds and Dineen converting Krause's pass with one tick to go. Krause dished off on the first of two Vincent markers in the opening 4:52 of the second half, Moyna scored at 21:58, and Vincent fed Dineen for the go-ahead goal at 17:49.

Church tied the game with 15:21 remaining, but Vincent and Moyna scored 1:15 apart to give the Purple and Gold an 11-9 advantage by 12:34, with the lead standing up until fewer than seven minutes remained. Bower stopped first-year Heather O'Hern's eight-meter try at 8:39, but the visitors twice failed to clear, leading to the Mountain Lions rattling off the next four goals in a matter of 2:16, with first-year Kiera Lowe scoring twice, including the go-ahead marker at 4:46. Nelson netted the winner, a woman-up goal on a free-position try, 23 seconds later. Oliver scored a woman-down goal at 2:55 to cut the deficit to one, but Nelson scored again 39 seconds after that before Church won the ensuing draw, and the Purple Knights never again possessed with a chance to tie.

Saint Michael's takes on Southern Connecticut State University tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET/1 p.m. MT for its Northeast-10 Conference opener in Mountain Lion Stadium.