PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Wilkes University women's lacrosse team took to the road for the first time this season, falling 14-7 in non-conference action to Purchase College Saturday. The Lady Colonels held a 23-22 advantage in shots but it was the Panthers that took better advantage of the opportunities.

Wilkes fell to 1-2 on the season while Purchase opened its season with the win to stand at 1-0.

The Skyline Conference opponent opened the scoring just 19 seconds into the game and pulled ahead 5-0 after nine minutes.

Freshman Ashley Burkhardt (Havre de Grace, MD/Havre de Grace) broke the ice for the Wilkes attack with a free position goal with 20:14 left in the first half. Purchase then scored two more goals before Kyra Boccio (Dingmans Ferry, Pa./Delaware Valley) connected on another free position opportunity for the Lady Colonels second goal.

Purchase then opened its lead to 10-2 before Boccio responded with her second goal of the game, and team-leading ninth of the season, with 10:29 left on the first half clock. The two sides remained scoreless the rest of the half and the game went to the break with the score 10-3 in favor of the home team.

Sophomore Laura Singleton (Pittston, PA/Pittston Area) then connected for her first career goal just 2:41 into the second half off an assist from Boccio. Burkhardt then followed with her second goal of the contest after a pass from Jessyca Held (West Babylon, NY/West Babylon) with 25:09 left in the game to bring the Lady Colonels goal streak to three and make the score 10-5.

The Panthers would stop the Wilkes run and ended a near 20-minute goal drought with 21:06 left, making the score 11-5. The game went scoreless until Burkhardt completed her first career hat-trick with 8:13 left to move her goal tally to six on the season. Purchase answered back only 15 seconds later to stop any ideas of a Wilkes comeback and added two more goals late in the game.

Held scored her first goal of the game and seventh of the season just before the final horn on a free position chance. She also led Wilkes with eight groundballs and six caused turnovers.

Sierra Duman (Smyrna, DE/Smyrna) was second on the team with four groundballs and Kirsten Jackson (Baltimore, MD/Kenwood) helped lead Wilkes to an 11-9 advantage in draw controls by winning nine. Sarah Carlini (Collegeville, PA/Pope John Paul II) made six saves.

Zoe Hines (five goals) and Gabriella Castles (four goals) led the Purchase offense while Allyson Wong and Gabrielle Sharman combined for 10 saves.

The Lady Colonels return to Schmidt Stadium to face Keystone College at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday.