The Bison women’s lacrosse team lost their opening match against Canisius on Graham Field 14-12. The Orange and Blue took a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter, with Tatumn Kohlbrenner ’24 scoring the opening goal of the season. 

Laurel McHale ’22 earned the next two goals of the Bison’s 2022 campaign, receiving a pass from Carly Cenci ’25 to score her first goal of the season. With 4:36 left in the first period, the Bison held a 3-0 lead.

Canisius came to life in the second period, taking their first lead of the day 5-4. Kohlbrenner got a pass from McHale and tied the game at 5-5 at the end of the period.

After the Bison’s brief break between periods, McHale had her third goal of the day, giving the Orange and Blue a 6-5 lead. The game was neck-and-neck for the next few minutes, with the score knotting up at 6-6 and 7-7.

The Bison soon lost the lead, with the Golden Griffins scoring the next two goals less than a minute apart. Katie Wendell ’22 had a goal in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, cutting Canisius’ lead to 10-9. 

The next couple minutes went downhill for the Bison, with the Golden Griffins scoring four uncontested goals, consolidating their lead 14-9. 

The Bison kept battling, cutting the lead to 14-12 with 2:38 left to play. Ella Payer ’23 had won her fourth draw control of the day, trying to help the Orange and Blue make a comeback in the last period. 

Time ran out, and the Bison had lost their first game of the season. The Golden Griffins ended the game with a 27-25 shot advantage. Kohlbrenner had one hundred percent accuracy on her free-position shots, going 3-3 on the day. 

Colleen Kazanjian ’25 and Caitlin Tucker ’22 split time in net for the Bison, while Cenci and Allie Boyce ’25 made their freshman debut by starting and scoring a point throughout the game. 

“We came off an intense preseason and it was upsetting that we did not play like ourselves. It was also really upsetting to end a game with that outcome. We had a lot of positive takeaways from the game with a lot of underclassmen contributing and our comeback attempt in the fourth quarter. We have highlighted our weaknesses from that game and are excited to make changes and continue our season,” Kohlbrenner, the Patriot League Midfielder of the Week, said.

McHale was also named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week for her great performance. 

The Bison take on Binghamton on the road on Saturday Feb. 19 at 3 p.m.