WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
>> Saint Francis falls 19-13 at Rider in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Thursday.
>> Bella Fisher (Duxbury, Mass.) paced the Red Flash with three goals and a career-high three assists.
>> Nancy Alden (East Lyme, Conn.) notched her first career hat trick, while Lizzie Fisher (Hagerstown, Md.) added three tallies and an assist. 
>> Julia Givens (Elverson, Pa.) posted two goals along with pacing the defense with a career-high three ground balls and three caused turnovers. 

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME
The Broncs scored the first four goals of the game. The Red Flash was able to cut it to a two-goal difference three times at 4-2, 6-4 and 7-5 at the half, but Rider posted five of the first six tallies of the second half to take control of the match.

FLASH QUOTES
"We came out flat to start both halves which put is in too much of a hole to recover. We had a spark in the second quarter to pull within 2 but couldn't sustain that momentum. Our current injury situation has put us in a difficult spot. Once those players return to action it will definitely make a positive impact on our overall play." - head coach Tracy Coyne on the game

FLASH MOMENTS
For the second-straight match, Lizzie Fisher scored the first Saint Francis tally, this time off a feed from Bella Fisher at 10:26. Bella Fisher then twinkled the twine at 8:33 on an 8-meter attempt to cut the margin to 4-2.
 
The Red Flash jumped out of the gate to start the second quarter with back-to-back goals. Alden grabbed a rebound off the pipe from the stick of Bella Fisher and hit the back of the net at 13:31 before Givens notched her fourth goal of the year off a pass from Lizzie Fisher at 9:39 to cut the deficit to 6-4.
 
Bella Fisher found the back of net again right before halftime with 1:41 left to help the Loretto program go into the break down 7-5.
 
Danielle Hernandez (New Fairfield, Conn.) curled around and scored at 11:32 in the third quarter before Bella Fisher completed her first hat trick of 2024 on an 8-meter tally at 5:25 in the third quarter. Givens wrapped the scoring with her second goal of the afternoon to wrap up the third-quarter scoring in the waning seconds of the frame.
 
Alden notched her second marker of the afternoon after a nice pass from Bella Fisher in front of the cage at 13:39 in the fourth quarter. After Lizzie Fisher scored off a Colleen Roche (Orlando, Fla.) feeder at 8:55, the connection worked again later in the fourth quarter to give Alden her first career hat trick and Bella Fisher her first career three-assist game at 5:55 in the fourth. In the final 62 seconds of the match, Brooke Lacey posted an 8-meter goal with 62 seconds left and Lizzie Fisher completed her hat trick with 36 seconds remaining.

FLASH NUGGETS
Bella Fisher registered her eighth hat trick of her career and the first since she posted back-to-back career-high six tally performances against CCSU (April 15) and St. Bonaventure (April 19). It is the first time in her career that she has dished out three helpers in a game and the third time she has recorded at least two assists in a match. It is the fifth time in her career that she has had six points in a contest.
 
Lizzie Fisher, who finished the game with three goals and an assist, tallied her first multi-goal performance of the season, the 14th of her career and her eighth career hat trick. In addition, it was the ninth time in her career that she has recorded four points in a match.
 
Givens posted her second-straight multi-goal performance after recording a hat trick against Oregon on Thursday. It is her sixth multi-goal performance of her career, but marked the first time the sophomore has posted back-to-back multi-goal performances. Givens also paced the defense with a career-high three ground balls and three caused turnovers. She had three caused turnovers total in her freshman year, while the three ground balls matches her career-best of three ground balls against Stonehill on April 1, 2023.
 
Alden notched her first career three-goal performance, while posting her third career multi-goal performance after registering one in each of her first two seasons in Loretto.
 
Hernandez, who grabbed a team-best five draw controls, will go into her next game needing four points to become the 12th player in team history with 100 points in her career. The five draw controls were the second most of her career with a six-draw game against Central Michigan on March 4, 2022 her standard.
 
Taylor Coughlin (Hespeler, Ontario) made a career-high 13 saves in the loss.

NEXT UP
Saint Francis returns to action with its home opener against Robert Morris on February 28. Game time is 2 p.m.