Ewing, NJ… Playing through a persistent snowfall that completely covered the turf at Lions' Stadium by games end, visiting SUNY Cortland held off a late surge by The College of New Jersey women's lacrosse team as the Red Dragons came away with a 15-13 win on Saturday.
 
The third-ranked Red Dragons never trailed in the game getting the early lead only allowing the sixth-ranked Lions to get within a pair of goals twice, including at the final horn.
 
Both teams are now 4-1 on the season.
 
Cortland led 14-8 with 20 minutes left in the game before the Lions made a push to close the gap. Junior Lauren Pigott (Jobstown, NJ/Northern Burlington) cut one goal off of that deficit and 33 seconds later sophomore Erin Waller (Washington Twp., NJ/Washington Twp.) scored on a free-position attempt.
 
Pigott scored again 58 seconds later as TCNJ kept gaining momentum.
 
The Red Dragons got one of the goals back when Erica Geremia (Camillus, NY/West Genesee) scored, but the Lions kept coming.
 
Waller capitalized on another 8-meter attempt and senior Alex Spark (Harvey Cedars, NJ/Southern Regional) scored with 8:53 left making it a 15-13 game.
 
That was the way the score stayed with the Red Dragons able to run off some of the clock and goalie Liz Ingalls (Centerport, NY/St. Anthony's) made three key stops in the final 3:30 of the game.
 
The teams traded goals in the opening 5:28, but the Red Dragons then scored four straight to claim a 5-1 lead with 18:17 left in the half.
 
The Lions got one of the goals back just over a minute later with Spark cashing in on a free-position shot.
 
Cortland's Maria Di Fato (Camillus, NY/West Genesee) answered 21 seconds later with that going making her only the third player in program history to score 200 goals. She joins Jeanna Angotti and Lindsay Abbott in that exclusive club. That goal pushed Cortland's lead to 6-2.
 
The Lions later closed the margin to 7-5 on a goal by Waller, but the Red Dragons rebuilt the advantage to 11-6.
 
TCNJ crept to within three goals at the break with Pigott and Spark each scoring cutting Cortland's lead to 11-8 at the half.
 
Spark led the Lions with five goals, while Pigott noted four and Waller had three.
 
Geremia led all players with nine points on four goals and five assists, while Dei Fato had five goals and one assist.
 
Junior goalie Kelsey Zinck (Bristow, VA/James W. Robinson) had seven saves.
 
Ingalls finished with four saves for the Red Dragons and Shauna Hutchinson (Islip Terrace, NY/ East Islip) collected three.
 
Things don't get any easier for the Lions as they travel to fourth-ranked Gettysburg College on Wednesday, March 20, while the Red Dragons will play their fourth straight road game heading to St. Lawrence University on March 21.