VERONA, N.J. – The Caldwell University women's lacrosse team lost its first home game of the season, 8-6 to Dominican College, in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference match Wednesday afternoon at Centennial Field. The result gives the Cougars a 2-3 record on the year, including a 1-1 mark in conference play. The Lady Chargers improve to 2-5 overall, 2-0 CACC.

Caldwell erased a 2-0 deficit with goals from sophomore midfielder Courtney Donlon (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick) and freshman Kylee Shoop (Triangle, VA/Forest Park) that tied the score at the 13:19 mark. Dominican closed out the half with three goals to take a 5-2 halftime lead.

Two more Dominican goals sandwiched around Shoop's second goal of the game made the score 7-3 Lady Chargers. Caldwell made a comeback attempt, getting back-to-back goals from Donlon and sophomore midfielder Christina Gonzalez (Fairfax, VA/Chantilly) to cut Dominican's lead to 7-5 with 7:34 remaining. But Christina Brennan tallied her third goal of the game less than two minutes later. Freshman Daniela Costanzo (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick) found the net with 1:21 to play to make it a two-goal game, but the Cougars were unable to get any closer.

Caldwell was outshot, 34-21 for the game, with sophomore goalie Melissa Garris (Matawan, NJ/Old Bridge) making a career-high 12 saves in goal. Brittany Kiernan recorded eight saves for Dominican.

The Cougars play another CACC match at Chestnut Hill College on Saturday, Mar. 28, beginning at 1:00 p.m. in Philadelphia, Pa.