Towson's women's lacrosse team needed only one game to feel the effect of the new 90-second possession clock.

With Saturday's game against No. 5 Stony Brook tied, the No. 19 Tigers got the ball with 1:53 left in the game. They worked the ball for 90 seconds but couldn't get a shot off and turned it over. The Seawolves scored with four seconds left to edge Towson, 10-9.

Last season, without the shot clock, the Tigers would have kept the ball and continued to work for the game-winner or, at least, held on to it long enough to force overtime.

Still, Tigers coach Sonia LaMonica wasn't complaining.

“Offensively, we just didn't execute what we needed to. We had plenty of time. The shot clock wasn't a factor in us not having enough of an opportunity,” LaMonica said. “I will take the shot clock and maybe coming up short this game instead of teams being able to run the clock down or hold on to the ball as long as you want. It's great for our game.”

LaMonica said there was also some confusion about the number of timeouts the Tigers had taken. She thought she had one left and would have liked to use it to set up a better scoring drive. However, the officials said she had used all of her timeouts.

Despite the loss, the Tigers served notice that they are on the rise in Division I, where Stony Brook has been a regular in the top 10 for a few years.

In what LaMonica called “a bit of a stalemate of a game,” the two teams were within one or two in every major statistical category – shots, draw controls, caused turnovers, ground balls, turnovers and free-position shots. The Seawolves only outshot the Tigers 24-23.

“We saw a lot of things, just little things we need to do a better job of and if we had, there's no question in my mind that we would have come out on top. It was a hard one to come up short, for sure, but I think it's very encouraging for our squad for the season.”

Hot start for McDonogh grad Buchanan: When No. 8 Notre Dame fell to No. 9 Northwestern, 10-9, Sunday, it was the first time freshman Savannah Buchanan had lost a school lacrosse game in a long time. Playing for McDonogh, she was a big part of the Eagles' 155-game winning streak.

Despite the loss, she showed she will likely be a big part of the success of the Fighting Irish for the next four years.

A versatile All-Metro midfielder who excelled at many intangibles that don't show up in the score book while at McDonogh, she led Notre Dame with four goals and had two ground balls, a draw control and a caused turnover.

Irish coach Christine Halfpenny said after the game that her performance was more like that of a veteran player.

“Everybody can see she's certainly living up to all the hype. Her stat line is just incredible. She's a game-changer. Her smart and patient shooting was outstanding today,” Halfpenny said in a statement.

Quick hits: Six of seven games last week involving at least one top 10 team were decided by one or two goals…Penn State's Steph Lazo (St. Mary's) had 12 points in a 20-9 win over Albany…Navy's Kelly Larkin debuted with seven points, a team record for a freshman, in a 20-3 win over Longwood…Towson's Kelly McQuilkin had five caused turnovers in the loss to Stony Brook.

katherine.dunn@baltsun.com

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