WOOSTER, Ohio -- The Kenyon College women's lacrosse team showed a lot of fight in a tough loss against The College of Wooster, falling 18-12 on the road in a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Saturday showdown. Despite never leading, the Ladies constantly narrowed the gap even if they were never quite able to close it.

Wooster (5-1, 4-0 NCAC) started out strong, scoring the first three goals of the game as the Ladies' offense struggled to find open shots against a resolute defense. But, with 21:40 in the first half, Maya Fair put Kenyon on the board with a Tatumn Eccleston assisted goal. 

Down 4-1, Kenyon began to inch back into the game. Brett Bearrows scored unassisted right off a draw win by Julia Losey. Alex Tiatia followed that up by scoring on a free position shot to pull the Ladies within one.

The entrance of goalie Delaney Gallagher also gave the Ladies' a boost. Subbing in for Tori Simon about 13 minutes into the game, Gallagher made a bunch of great saves to keep things close. On the day, Gallagher ended up making 15 saves in 47 minutes of work. 

Wooster, however, continued to pile on the pressure with shot after shot. Heading into halftime, the Fighting Scots used a 5-0 run to build a  9-4 advantage.  

Wooster's strong defense was a big reason for the Ladies' slow start. It stifled Kenyon fast breaks and forced the Ladies to dissect the wall in front of goalie Katie Shideler, who saved eight of twelve shots on goal in the first half.

The Ladies' came out with more aggression on both sides of the ball at the start of the second half. An early goal from Eccleston got things started for Kenyon. Tiatia then found the back of the net to bring the Ladies within striking distance with 19:46 left in the game. But, another five-goal run by Wooster erased the Kenyon comeback, putting the Fighting Scots up 14-6 with about 14 minutes left in the contest. 

Kenyon (0-2, 0-2 NCAC) was not to be counted out. The Ladies answered with a four-goal onslaught from Eccelston, Tiatia, Emma Hutchison and Fair. That brought the score to 14-10 with 10 minutes left. 

The Ladies added two more late goals, one from Julia Mahoney and the other from Losey, but they were sandwiched by four more goals from Wooster, which won its fifth game in a row and clinched a spot in the NCAC championship game.

Eccleston led the Ladies offense with five points on two goals and three assists. Tiatia tossed in three goals and Fair contributed two goals and one assist.

Wooster got a game-high six points from Alexa Mellis, who tallied four goals and two assists. Both Kate Harvey and Ashley Boersma had five-point games, while Mirua Wiley had four points on three goals and an assist.

Up next for Kenyon is a conference contest at Allegheny College on Tuesday.