The University of Mary Washington women's lacrosse team put forth an outstanding defensive effort, but came up just short in an 8-5 loss to Roanoke College on Wednsday afternoon at the Battleground. The Eagles slip to 8-8 on the season.

Both teams showed some nervousness early on, as evidenced by 14 combined turnovers in the first period. The defenses were stout as well, and the score stood at 1-0 in favor of UMW after a Bridget Crowley score with 8:34 left on a Clare Madden assist, after 15 minutes of play.

In the second, Roanoke scored with 11:19 left and again with 6:19 to go take grab the lead. The Eagles countered on a man-up score from Katie Blair with three seconds left to knot the score at 2-2 at halftime.

The scoring remained scarce in the third quarter, with the Marrons netting a pair of goals to take a 4-2 lead to the fourth quarter. The Maroons scored twice more, before Blair scored again on a free position shot with 7:33 remaining to draw UMW to within 6-3. Roanoke scored the next two, before the Eagles tallied late scores from Rebecca Pullen, at 2:57 and 59 seconds left for the 8-5 final.

Roanoke led in shots, 27-12, and ground balls, 25-21. UMW goalkeeper Reilly Miller made 12 saves on the day.

The Eagles will be back in action on April 29, when they host the University of Lynchburg at 4:00 p.m. in the regular season finale.