The University of Denver women’s lacrosse team suffered their first loss of the season, 5-3, in North Carolina against the Wildcats on Friday.

The Pioneers advanced against the Wildcats in the beginning of the match thanks to sophomore midfielder Patience Baldwin.

Baldwin made the first and second goals for the Pioneers by taking her talent to the net and scoring a point at the 22:57 mark and then scoring again with only 2:37 left to play in the half.

The Wildcats came back in the second half, scoring their first goal with 4:19 left to play. They tied the score just three minutes later at 2-2.

The Wildcats took over the lead with another goal, but freshman Melissa Holecheck kept the competition going for Denver by scoring halfway through the last frame.

But once again the Wildcats stepped up their performance and scored another goal to keep them in the lead for the rest of the game.

“We controlled the first half, but we couldn’t sustain that momentum in the second half,” said Head Coach Abby Burbank.

“We’re young, though, and that’s a common trait of young teams. I’m definitely encouraged that we only allowed Davidson 13 shots after allowing 37 last year (in a 14-1 Davidson win).

“To have a game be that low scoring is phenomenal. We got some great defense from Megan Bader, Patience Baldwin did a great job on the attack, and we got some solid play in front of the net from Sarah Hazard.”

The Pioneers will be back in action this weekend in North Carolina when they have two games of exhibition action at the South of the Border tournament in Raleigh/Durham.

You can see women’s lacrosse back in Denver when they play CAL on Pioneer Field on Friday March 8th.

Game time is set to start at 7:00 p.m.

You can catch men’s lacrosse on march 4th when they play Holy Cross on Pioneer Field.