Bucknell Women’s Lacrosse had their home opener against UMBC this past weekend. 

The Bison opened with the first goal of the game, but unfortunately UMBC came back by scoring seven consecutive goals. 

This action fired up the Orange and Blue and they were able to put up two more goals before the half concluded while UMBC put only one more point on the board, leaving the halftime score at 3-8 for the Bison. 

In the second half, the Bison were able to dominate the opponent and had control over the game. 

Shortly into the third quarter, Alex Nesbitt ’26 logged her first career goal and Taylor Kopan ’24 made a hat trick, making the score 7-9 for the Bison. 

The Bison were able to put up three more points, but so was UMBC, leaving the final score 10-12 for the Orange and Blue. 

Megan Krestinski ’26 was also able to score first career goals and earned her first career hat trick in this game. Carly Cenci ’25 and Allie Boyce ’25 scored a goal too. 

Bucknell had a 25-23 shot advantage over UMBC and goalkeeper Symone Ryans ’23 made six saves in the game. 

A few days after the game, the Bison traveled to face Marist for their second game of the week. 

The Bison were dominating against Marist, as the score was 13-4 for the Bison in the third quarter. This was with the help of Emily Baird ’24 with her four goal streak, a hat trick from Boyce and two goals a piece for Katie Browne ’26 and Bella Koch ’26. These were Koch’s first career goals. 

Caroline Sheridan ’26 and Aliza Thir ’25 also scored their first collegiate goals in this game. Bucknell outshot Marist 41-26. 

The Bison controlled the draw as well with the help of Caitlin McHale ’23, Ella Payer ’23 and Baird. 

Ryans made 11 saves in the game to assist the Bison with the win against Marist. The final score was 17-12. 

“Our first two games, while losses, showed a lot of positives; especially our team potential and fight,” Ryans said. “We then had our home opener on Wednesday and we translated the positives of our Penn State game into our game vs UMBC which was a battle up until the last whistle. We started the UMBC game a little slow, which was a point of emphasis leading up to Marist, but the grit we showed against the Retrievers carried over into Saturday’s game against Marist. Against Marist we started out strong, our offense played great and didn’t let up. Our team is very young but people are stepping up, making improvements and getting better everyday day which is all that we can hope for as a team as we move forward with our season.”

Next, the Bison will face Robert Morris on Saturday Feb. 25 in Moon Township, Pa.