PHILADELPHIA – Trailing 1-7 after a goal less than two minutes into the second half, the Kutztown University women's lacrosse team scored four goals in the span of 4:17 to pull within two, but the Golden Bears could not get any closer in an eventual 13-7 loss at Philadelphia U in their non-conference finale on Wednesday evening.
 
Philadelphia's early second half score with 28:27 remaining was quickly answered when Jordan Klebe (Bishopville, Md./Stephen Decator) found Lauren Schmidt (Hanover, Pa./South Western) for a goal just 1:03 later.
 
It was then Lauren Higgins scoring twice over the next 1:50 to continue the momentum before Makayla Bowman (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) put an exclamation point on the four-goal flurry with an unassisted tally to make the score 5-7 with 23:07 to go.
 
Unfortunately, Kutztown (5-5) scored just twice the remainder of the afternoon as Philadelphia quickly grabbed the momentum back with a goal 46 seconds later.
 
After Philadelphia re-established a four-goal advantage with a man-up score with 20:10 left, it took Bowman just 14 seconds gave KU one final spark when she scored unassisted.
 
With the next goal proving to be crucial in deciding the outcome, the two teams battled through six minutes of scoreless play until Philadelphia all but put the game away for good by making it 10-6 with 13:54 left.
 
Sarah Gabriele (Felton, Pa./York Catholic) scored with 8:32 to play, joining Huggins and Bowman in becoming the third Golden Bear with a multi-goal effort. She added a career-high nine draw controls, tied for the second-most in a single game in school history, to move into third place in Kutztown history with 97 for her career.
 
The effort was part of a dominating 20-2 advantage in draw controls for KU.
 
Also moving into third place in Kutztown history was goalkeeper Abby Cox (York, Pa./West York), who made 11 saves to end the evening with 297 for her career.
 
There was just one goal scored in the first 16:25 of gameplay on Wednesday, scored by Philadelphia 3:16 into the contest. The Rams added the next two goals as well before Gabriele got KU on the board at the 9:03 mark of the first half.
 
Philadelphia (3-5) would go on to score the final three goals of the half in the span of just 2:35, with the final one coming exactly three minutes before the halftime break.
 
KU is back on the road on Friday as it looks to build momentum for the homestretch of its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) schedule at Slippery Rock. The match is set to begin at 3 p.m.