Saturday, the Kent State women’s lacrosse team still has not beaten Mid-American Conference opponent Robert Morris.

After falling 15-6 Saturday, the Flashes have lost six consecutive games to RMU in the four-year history of KSU lacrosse.

Kent State is alone in fourth place in the MAC with a 2-5 record (5-9 overall). Robert Morris improves to 7-0 and is in first place in the league. The Colonials are 7-6 overall.

The RMU offense scored five goals in the opening six minutes of the game.

“[Robert Morris] opened the game fast-paced and very aggressive, which caught us on our heels,” coach Brianne Tierney said. “They’re usually a methodical offense, so coming out and attacking us from the start allowed them to get an early lead. It took us a little while to get settled in.”

On March 2, the Flashes lost to RMU 11-8, and one of the reasons was losing the draw 17-6.

“I was concerned about the draw all week,” Tierney said. “We were able to perform better in that area of the game but could not capitalize.”

Kent State won the draw 15-10 Saturday but committed 28 turnovers. Tierney said, “[w]e would immediately do something to hurt ourselves.”

The Flashes trailed 9-3 at halftime. That has been a bad sign all year: going into the game, they had been 0-7 when trailing at the half.

During the second half, KSU was never able to build momentum.

“Their zone defense is tough to go against,” Tierney said. “Nobody seems ever to be open. We weren’t patient enough and couldn’t get any open looks. You have to have assists to score on their goalie. Taking her one-on-one is very difficult to do.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Monturo started her second-straight game for the Flashes because of an injury to junior starter Madison Flannigan.

“She had a good game today, making some important saves to keep us in the game early,” Tierney said.

Monturo had a KSU season-high 17 saves.

Sophomore attacker Jackie Wolford led the team with two goals; she has a team-high 35.

Kent State has three games remaining. To qualify for the MAC tournament, it will need to remain in the top four of the six-team conference.

Tierney is happy the team can control their path to the tournament, which begins on May 5.

“It’s better to have the pressure of winning games now rather than having to hope another team loses late in the season,” she said. “Our fate is in our own hands, and that will start with Central Michigan.”

Central Michigan (7-6, 5-1 MAC), which is in second, defeated the Flashes 20-6 on March 10.

“They’re a very tough team, and part of me thinks that we’ve never been able to play our best game against them,” Tierney said. “So, we’re going to prepare to have our best day of the week on Saturday.”

The Flashes will take on second-place CMU at 1 p.m. Saturday at Dix Stadium in their final home game.

Jacob Shondel is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].