GENEVA, N.Y. – The Union College women's lacrosse team dropped its first Liberty League contest of the season on Friday afternoon, falling to IWLCA #2 William Smith College by a 12-6 score at the Poole Family Dome.
 
First-year Gillian Joseph led Union (3-2, 1-1 Liberty League) with three goals and was matched with three points by junior Greta Maurer on a goal and two assists. Seniors Katie Julien and Anna Smith both scored as well for the visitors.
 
Maddie Montgomery paced William Smith (6-0, 1-0 Liberty League) with six goals and an assist for a game-high seven points.
 
Union hung with the Herons for much of the game, with three of the four periods featuring only a one-goal margin in favor of the home team. William Smith outscored Union 6-3 in the third period to provide some breathing room.
 
Joseph opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game off a feed from sophomore Maddie Doyle, but two Heron tallies in 56 seconds put the home team in front. Following a Julien tally 5:02 into the second stanza, William Smith scored the final two goals of the second period and the first three of the third to take a 7-2 lead.
 
Union got back in the game with three of the next four goals, with Maurer's unassisted tally bringing the Garnet Chargers back within three at 8-5 with 4:47 to go in the third period. However, the home team came back with four straight goals to take a 12-5 advantage before Joseph closed the scoring for the visitors.
 
William Smith finished the game with a 37-15 edge in shots. Sophomore Sydney Widlitz made 12 saves for Union and Maura Smeader made seven stops for the home team.
 
Union will continue its busy week tomorrow with a 2 p.m. conference matchup at Rochester Institute of Technology.