The Bison softball team (13-2) traveled to West Point, N.Y. to take on Army in a three-game series on April 20-21. The Bison went into the series undefeated in the Patriot League, but Army took home two out of three on the weekend. Army won the first game of the series with a 4-1 victory, the Bison won game two 6-1, and Army won game three 4-2.

In the first game, the Bison equaled the Black Knights in hits, but hits with runners in scoring position proved to be the difference-maker in the 4-1 loss. Army took the lead during the third inning when they scored three runs on two consecutive doubles followed by a single. During the fifth inning, the Bison scored their first run when Allyse Volpe ’22 stole second and Jess Hom ’21 stole home plate. Hom went three-for-three at the plate, while both Volpe and Lauren Hadley ’19 singled twice.

In the second game, the Bison and the Black Knights were tied 1-1 until the sixth inning, when the Bison scored five runs. The Black Knights had three errors in the inning, allowing Taylor Wolfgang ’21 to get on base twice, and the Orange and Blue capitalized. Pitcher Lauren Lichtenwalner ’20 only gave up three hits in the game with three strikeouts and no walks. The Bison finished with six total hits in the game.

In the third game, the Bison took a 1-0 lead early after Hadley had an RBI single that brought in Volpe to score. The Orange and Blue then had another RBI single the next inning by Nicole Riviat ’22 that brought in Ryanne Rokos ’19 to put the Bison up 2-0. In the fourth inning, Army scored three unearned runs and added another unearned run in the fifth inning to push their lead to 4-2.

Lichtenwalner and Raeanne Geffert ’20 pitched in the game, with Lichtenwalner allowing one hit and one walk. Geffert allowed five hits and one walk but struck out three. The Bison had a total of six hits: Volpe singled twice, Rokos hit a double, while Anna Gimmestad ’19, Hadley, and Rivait all singled once.

“Our team’s performance this weekend was strong as always – but Army also came out strong and ready to beat us,” Rivait said. “It came down to the fact that any team can win on any given day, and the cards just didn’t fall out the right way this weekend. But I’m definitely not worried going forward, we are still the team everyone is gunning for and I’m confident we can rise to any challenge that comes our way. This is a very special group that is capable of just about everything.”

On April 24, the Bison traveled to State College, PA to face the Nittany Lions of Penn States. Winning the first game of the double header, 4-2, the Bison dropped the second game by a close score of 9-8. The team’s overall record for the season now stands at 26-19.

The Bison will be back in action on May 4 against Boston University for another conference series. Boston University is atop of the Patriot League standings with an 11-1 record in the conference.

“This is definitely our biggest series and probably most difficult as Boston is a very good team,” Rivait said. “It’s going to be difficult and we’ll need all 20 players at their best in order to win, but we are determined to win the series and get to host the Patriot League Championship.”