During a blustery Saturday afternoon battle on Virtue Field, women’s lacrosse faced conference rival University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Vermont ended a five-game winning streak with the loss, according to UVM Athletics.

The Catamounts concluded with a final score of 14-13 for the March 30 game.

Vermont scored first from senior attacker Jenna Janes, but UMBC was able to respond quickly with two goals in the following two minutes to regain the lead.

The Catamounts were then able to prevent the Retrievers from scoring for the next 12 minutes, picking up three more goals coming from senior midfielder Elise Koehl, first-year Attacker Maris Large and a second goal from Janes.

Janes was able to finish the game with four goals to lead the team, as well as two assists, according to UVM Athletics.

To finish the first half, the Retrievers were able to take the lead at 7-5 after a Koehl goal which briefly gave Vermont the lead, something that UMBC would hold on to for the rest of the game.

During the second half, the Catamounts suffered from penalties.

They picked up three yellow cards, two of which directly led to UMBC goals.

Vermont Head Coach Sarah Dalton said that the penalties her team gave up were key factors in the outcome of the game.

“I think we need to learn from our yellow cards, which hurt us and allowed them to score two goals,” she said. “Every play matters, all the little stuff matters, and we got to keep valuing that possession of the ball.”

First-year Jalyn Collins also commented on the penalties given in UMBC’s favor.

“It felt like we were slowly fighting back into the game,” she said. “The penalties and goals scored off them just stopped our momentum.”

During the second half, the Retrievers built their biggest lead of the game 11-8 with 20 minutes left in the game.

The Catamounts were able to spark a run, tying up the game again at 11 with help from first-year attacker Dani Paterno, first-year midfielder Grace Giancola and again from Koehl.

Koehl ended the game with four goals and one assist, becoming the 18th Catamount to record over 100 career points.

After mounting a comeback with 10 minutes remaining, UMBC was able to take advantage of Vermont’s penalties, taking a 14-11 lead with just five minutes to go.

First-year Ian Cole commented on the significance of these penalties and some controversial calls.

“It seemed as if the referees were making poor calls throughout the game against us,” he said. “It may be because I’m a Catamount, but some calls seemed to be wrong.”

The other Catamount fans also felt this way, when there were collective sighs and boo’s when yellow cards and penalties were issued.

Vermont regained life in the final minutes of the game, scoring twice in the closing minutes to bring it to 14-13 in UMBC’s favor.

UVM had the final possession with one minute remaining.

They committed a penalty which allowed the Retrievers to let the game end and go away with an America East conference win.

The next women’s lacrosse game will be on the road April 3 against University at Albany.

The next home game is at 11 a.m. April 6 against Stony Brook University.