GAMBIER, Ohio – Kenyon College's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament hopes took a major hit on Tuesday as the Denison University women's lacrosse team scored the game's final five goals and escaped Mavec Field with a 14-13 win. The Big Red had fallen behind 13-9 a little over 10 minutes into the second half before coming back.
 
The two rivals went back in forth in the opening stanza before reaching halftime with the Ladies holding a 7-6 lead.
 
Sophomore Kat Englert gave the Ladies the lead almost three minutes in as she scored her 45th goal of the season. A couple minutes later, Denison's Claire Ludlow found teammate Carol Allen for the visitors' second goal which put the Big Red up 2-1.
 
Ludlow later assisted on another goal, this one to Briana Alberghine at the 13:04 mark, which tied the contest at 4-4.
 
Kenyon scored the next two from Jane Symmes and Englert to give the Ladies their biggest lead of the half (6-4) with 5:45 left, but Denison found one more with a second to spare from Claudia Rafi to complete the scoring of the first half.
 
Second-half action saw the Big Red score twice within the first 1:12 to retake the lead at 8-7. But after that the Ladies reeled off five straight goals. Englert scored twice while Symmes scored three during the run which put the home team up 12-8 with 22:47 left.
 
A few moments later, freshman Cassie Hudson-Heck scored her 32nd of the year on a free-position shot to put the Ladies up 13-9 at the 19:09 mark.
 
After that though, Denison goalie Hannah Magarian stopped three shots from the Ladies while her offense came through.
 
Down by four, the Big Red scored on five of its last seven shots. Halle Walsh started the game-ending run with her fifth goal on an assist from Lizzy Pellicane. With about six minutes left, Rafi tied the game and with 4:44 left, Pellicane scored the eventual game winner.
 
Kenyon was able to get just three shots off in the final six minutes.
 
Next up for the Ladies is a trip to Allegheny College on April 23 with a 1:00 p.m. start time.