ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaking 13-12 overtime contest Saturday evening to the Bryant Bulldogs.

Winthrop was dealt its first loss of the season and fell to 8-1 on the year while Bryant improved to 3-3.

In a back-and-forth first half, the Eagles took four of the first five goals and led 4-1 with 15:27 on the clock.  Bryant then battled back, scoring the next three goals to tie the contest at 4-4 with 8:53 left in the half.

Winthrop had a very strong finish to the first half, scoring six goals in the final 6:18 including three times in the final minute to take a 10-4 lead into the break.

The strong finish to the first half for the Eagles proved to be vitally important as Bryant slowly chipped away at the Eagle lead.  The two sides traded the first two goals before the Bulldogs rattled off five straight to get within one at 11-10 with 9:49 remaining. 

The Eagles were able to regain a two-goal lead with 7:34 remaining as Kristen Shriver netted her third of the contest on a feed from Shannon Gallagher.  The Bulldogs then scored twice inside of a minute to tie the game at 12-12 with 2:23 on the clock.  Neither team was able to score in the final two minutes and the game headed to overtime.

Winthrop was able to grab the draw of the overtime period and got the first crack at goal but a shot by Shriver went high and Bryant was able to pick up the ground ball.  The Bulldogs moved the ball around in the offensive end for more than a minute before Lauren Descalzo found the back of the net for the win.

Shannon Gallagher and Kristen Shriver each tallied four points to lead the Eagles.  Gallagher recorded all of hers on assists while Shriver scored three times and assisted on one other.  Alexis Linhard and Katie Clark each tallied two goals.  Hayley Krause led the team with five draw controls and goalie Alaina Girani finished with nine saves.

The Eagles will now start a stretch of four straight road games.  Winthrop will head to Bucknell on Wednesday for a 2 p.m. contest.