POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Roger Williams University Women's Lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 11-9 to Vassar College Thursday evening.

Jackie Criss (Westwood, Mass.) opened with a goal less than a minute into the game. Vassar answered with four goals over a four-minute stretch, three of which were scored by Christine Castellan (Media, Pa.).

Claire Halliday (Trenton, N.J.) put a stop to the Brewer surge with a score at the 18:54 mark to pull the Hawks within two. Yet Vassar continued to rally, adding two goals less than two minutes apart off the sticks of Sarah Warner (Ipswich, Mass.) and Katama Martellucci (Montclare, Pa.) to take a 6-2 lead.

Despite the four-goal deficit, the Hawks fought back with four unanswered goals in the final 7:11, including the game-tying shot by Lauren Ferri (Northport, N.Y.) with eight seconds to play in the first half.

Tied at six entering the second half, both teams held their ground defensively, as neither the Hawks nor the Brewers could mount a point over the opening eleven minutes. Castellan broke the stalemate with her fourth goal of the game at the 18:30 mark to give Vassar a slim 7-6 lead. That score began a 5-0 run for the Brewers that put Vassar up 11-6 with 5:41 to play.

The Hawks made a last-minute effort to get back in the game, closing the gap to two in the final four minutes off of a pair of goals by Annie Alvord (Yorktow, N.Y.) and Kara Smolca (Gaithersburg, Md.). Yet the Hawks could not find the net over the remainder of the game as the Brewers escaped with the win to remain undefeated, improving to 3-0.

Halliday, Criss, and Ferri each scored twice in the game, while Amanda Magee (Columbus, N.J.) made 12 saves for the Hawks in goal.

Roger Williams (3-1) will take the rest of the weekend off after traveling from Maryland to New York in the past two days. The Hawks will host the University of New England Tuesday afternoon for a 3:30 p.m. matchup in their home opener.