The women’s lacrosse team fell 14–5 to a speedy Fairfield squad Wednesday at Reese Stadium.

The Elis struggled to find their groove against their local rivals the No. 18 Stags, who lost just three contests last season. The Stags took their first-ever win against Yale to bring them to 2–0 on the season, leaving the Bulldogs at 1–1.

[ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”7593″ ]

“We knew that they really wanted to beat us because they have never beaten us before,” attacker Myra Trivellas ’11 said. “So we knew that going into it they were going to fight hard.”

Although Bulldog players said they knew it would be a tough fight against the nationally-ranked Stags, Yale has had success against the Stags in past meetings.

“They are definitely a beatable team and I think in the end, we ended up hurting ourselves with our own mistakes,” defender Kaitlyn Flatley ’11 said.

The back-and-forth game got off to a quick start with a Fairfield goal five minutes into the game. Although attacker Winnie Call ’12 scored the first tally for the Bulldogs off of a feed from middie Devon Rhodes ’13 to tie it 1–1, Fairfield responded with two unanswered goals to pull ahead. But it was only minutes before the Bulldogs came back and scored three in a row during a three-minute period midway through the half to make it 4–1. Trivellas placed one past Fairfield freshman goalie Katie Keenan, followed by goals from Rhodes and attacker Jess Sturgill ’10.

“When we were able to be poised on attack, take our time, and run our own game, we made things happen,” Trivellas said.

Fairfield took a 7–4 lead with four straight goals, the last of which came with about three minutes left. After Yale committed a foul inside the eight-meter arc, Erin Rigby scored her third of five goals from a free position, a situation in which an attacker has a head start to get a shot on net from close-range. With a little over a minute before halftime, Fairfield’s Caitlin Young hit the net to bring the tally to eight. The Stags stretched the lead to five with just 30 seconds remaining in the half. Speedy Chloe Mangan ran through the Eli defense to sneak the ball past Quackenbush on a Fairfield man-advantage as the Bulldogs tried to kill off a yellow card.

Yale began the second half with a defensive surge as defender Fielding Kidd ’11 successfully thwarted a Fairfield 2-on-1.

“We did well coming together on defense after the first half,” Trivellas said. “And Whitney is consistently strong in net for us.”

Two consecutive Fairfield free position goals quickly made it 11–4, as the visiting team extended its run to eight straight goals. The run would stop there as Call tallied her second of the game off of another feed from Rhodes. But that was the last time the home team would hit the net. With 15 minutes left in regulation, Fairfield continued to take advantage of the frustrated Bulldogs as they netted three more goals to solidify the score at 14–5.

The Bulldogs were disappointed with their performance, but know what it will take to turn things around.

“Today was not our day, almost everyone had an off game and we need to hold each other accountable and expect a better level of play,” Flatley said.

Fairfield outshot the Bulldogs 32–16, while Quackenbush recorded 12 saves. Keenan had seven saves in net for the visitors.

The Elis return to Reese Stadium on Saturday to face James Madison at 1 p.m.