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KENNESAW, Ga. – Marissa Gore's career-high five goals was not enough to push the Kennesaw State women's lacrosse team across the finish line Wednesday afternoon as the Owls dropped a hard-fought 17-14 decision to Vermont to close out their seven-game homestand.
 
The Gore sisters combined for nine of KSU's 14 goals with Izzy Palermo netted her second hat trick of the season.
 
How it Happened: The Catamounts (4-4) pounced on the Owls (3-4) at the onset, netting the game's first three goals. Siena Gore finally halted the run with a goal off a free position shot, but Vermont responded with back-to-back goals in less than a minute to lead 5-1 at the 14:38 mark.
 
KSU fought to cut the deficit to two thanks to goals from Jaxsyn Schonewille and Marissa Gore in quick succession. Vermont scored three of the next four goals to double up the Owls with less than a minute to play before a free position goal by Palermo made it 8-5 just seconds before the halftime buzzer.
 
The Catamounts started the second half quickly once again with two goals wrapped around a goal from Marissa Gore. The Owls then turned it up a notch with two quick goals from Siena Gore and a breakaway score by Emily Napierala to make it 10-9 less than five minutes into the period.
 
Palermo finally put the Owls on level terms with another free position goal to knot both teams at 10 with 20 minutes still to play. Vermont did not shy away netting two goals to regain the lead. Both teams traded goals as KSU attempted to tie the game once again, but a 4-1 swing put Vermont on top 17-13 with two minutes left in the game. The Owls continued to fight, with Marissa Gore netting another goal, but time ran out on KSU's comeback attempt.
 
Notes: Marissa Gore finished with a career-high seven points, adding two assists to her five goals scored … Siena Gore finished with six points, the third time in the last four games she has recorded six points, recording four goals and two assists … the Owls went 6-for-7 on free position attempts … Alex Bunn finished with 11 saves despite recording the loss … Vermont out-shot KSU 33-24 … Vermont recorded 21 ground balls to KSU's 10.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Laura Maness
On KSU's slow start…
"It's been a problem, just going through some scoring droughts. That carried over into today and that's why I think the first half was slow and we're trying to fix that. I think in the second half we did fix that. It's a shame that then we had to dig ourselves out, but that's something that we need to fix from the very beginning of the game."
 
On positive takeaways…
"I think [Vermont] is a really good team, they definitely out sized us so we really had to earn every single possession. I thought we did good on the draw, I thought we moved the ball better on offense, the sets we were running worked. One of the biggest things we need to focus on though is not having what I call empty possessions which are when we turn the ball over on offense, bobbling the ball before we get an opportunity to shoot under pressure. We had a few of those and those empty possessions lead to scoring droughts."
 
Up Next: The Owls will have to shake this one off quick as they head to Florida to open conference play, taking on preseason favorites Jacksonville Friday at 3 p.m. followed by Stetson Sunday at noon.