HILTON HEAD, S.C.—The SUNY Potsdam women's lacrosse team (0-1) scored three goals in the final 2:50, but fell 10-9 to St. Joseph's College (L.I.) (1-1) in its season opener in Hilton Head this afternoon. Junior attack Bri McClusky (Watertown, N.Y./Immaculate Heart) led the Bears with a goal and three assists. Senior Bailey Weigel (East Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville South) and sophomore Murphy Newman (Canton, N.Y./Berkshire School) each scored twice for Potsdam. Ela Igdeler paced the Golden Eagles with four tallies.
 
McClusky opened the scoring less than three minutes into the contest with an assist from Weigel. St. Joe's answered with four straight goals. Meaghan Haber tied the game at 22:30. Melanie Cervone gave the Golden Eagles the lead for good 1:16 later. Caitlyn Webber and Heather Ferchland closed the run with goals at 20:36 and 14:19 to make it 4-1. McClusky set up sophomore attack Katie Lapinski (Canton, N.Y./Hugh C. Williams) to slow St. Joe's momentum at 6:58, but Igdeler netted her first at the 2:33 mark. Sophomore attack Mariah Pierce (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill) capitalized on a free position with 22 seconds left in the half and the Bears trailed 5-3 at the break.
 
The Golden Eagles scored the first three of the second half for their biggest lead of the contest at 8-3 with 22:35 to play. Igdeler scored two of the three goals with Kacie Mitterando getting the middle marker. Senior captain Katie Putnam (Chittenango, N.Y./Chittenango) started Potsdam's comeback with 22:28 to go with a free-position goal. At 17:07, Weigel scored her first of the season to close the gap to 8-5. Igdeler got her fourth less than minute later to extend the lead back to four. Newman then struck on a free-position opportunity at 8:52. Off the very next draw control, St. Joe's scored what proved to be the decisive tally 12 seconds later. The Bears closed the contest with a 3-0 run. Senior captain Emily Petit (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury) made it 10-7 with a free-position goal at 2:50. With 40 seconds left, McClusky set up Weigel to get the deficit down to two. Twenty seconds later, McClusky found Newman for her second of the day to make it 10-9. Potsdam seized the final draw control, but ran out of time before getting a final salvo away.
 
In goal, sophomore Devan Olschewske (Canadaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua) put on a solid performance with 13 saves.
 
The Bears will look to bounce back on Wednesday when they take on Eastern University (Pa.) at 2 p.m.  
 
(Note: the box score is incomplete and will be updated later.)