PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The St. Bonaventure women's lacrosse team dropped their first Atlantic 10 Conference road contest of the season at Saint Joseph's Saturday, 15-9.  
 
The Bonnies (9-6, 5-3 A-10) got out to a hot start, securing a 6-3 lead with 9:33 to play in the opening half, but couldn't hold on with the Hawks outscoring them 12-3 over the next two and half quarters of action.
 
Brooke Piper scored four of Bona's nine goals and added an assist for her seventh game with five or more points on the year. Piper's 58 goals on the season represent the second most in a year by a Bonnie behind Molly Hastrich who led the A-10 with 62 in 2009.
 
Megan Schillinger got the Bonnies on the board first at the 9:42 mark in the opening stanza.
 
The Hawks (8-7, 7-1 A-10) answered swiftly, scoring under 20 seconds later, but Tori Nascimento tallied her first of the day to give the Bonnies a 2-1 advantage with 7:17 on the clock.
 
The Bonnies extended the lead to two as Piper found a cutting Grace Hollenbeck who scored her 22^nd goal of the season.
 
Sarah Groark got one back on a power play opportunity for the Hawks to end the first quarter with the Bonnies leading 3-2.
 
The Bonnies offense found momentum to begin the second quarter, surging out to a three-goal lead. Piper netted two more for the Brown and White in the opening 3 minutes of the second quarter, and a free position goal from Tori Nascimento gave Bona its biggest lead of the contest.
 
After the media timeout, Saint Joseph's responded with three unanswered goals to knot the game at six going into the halftime break.
Hawks goalie Jorden Concordia stopped 10 of Bona's 16 shots on goal in the first half, helping them even the score before the intermission.
 
St. Joe's scored another three goals to open the second half and take a 9-6 lead with 10:19 to play in the third quarter.
 
Piper broke the cold spell for the Bona's offense, scoring a man-down free position goal.
 
Another free position strike, this time off the stick of McGovern cut the deficit to one for the Bonnies with 6:31 on the clock, but the Hawks scored three to end the quarter with a 12-8 advantage.
 
Piper recorded her fourth and Bona's ninth goal of the day five minutes into the final quarter.
 
St. Joe's tallied three more before the game clock expired to earn a 15-9 win and improve to 7-1 in conference play.
 
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH LEIGHANN STAUFFER
"It was another unfortunate game playing a tough team where we couldn't finish. I'm hoping we can continue to learn from these games and situations and we move closer to playoffs."

UP NEXT
The Bonnies return home to the Marra Athletics Complex to host Massachusetts next Saturday April 19. The game will serve as the team's alumni appreciation game as well as a CJD and Breast Cancer Awareness contest.

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