WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The second game of Whitman College's women's lacrosse program didn't go as well as the first, but the Missionaries put up a fight against visiting George Fox University before falling, 15-9, to the Bruins in a Northwest Conference contest on a sunny Monday afternoon at the Whitman Athletic Fields.

Whitman (1-1, 1-1 NWC) wasn't able to re-capture its dominance from Sunday's program-opening victory, but the Missionaries scored the first goal of the game against George Fox (6-1, 2-0) and staged a late rally with the contest's final four tallies.

Head coach Kate Robinson was prophetic heading into the season opener Saturday, stating "win the draw control, win the game." And the Missionaries' winning score was nearly identical to the draw control figures. Monday, unfortunately, her statement also proved true as Fox owned a 16-10 advantage from the dot and captured the win by the six goals.

As if on cue, Whitman's Anna Melville snared the opening draw control and raced down field to slot a shot past Bruins goalkeeper Kaylee Kolin only 16 seconds into the game. Fox won the next draw control and pulled even 30 seconds later on a score by Jessica Adrian.

The Bruins nabbed their first lead of the game two minutes later but it only took 75 seconds for the Missionaries to find the equalizer as Sarah Edwards burned Kolin for her fifth goal of the young season.

Two more Fox goals created a cushion for the visitors but Emily Jordan's third of the season trimmed the deficit in half with just under 11 minutes remaining in the opening half.

The wheels began to wobble, however, soon after the clocked ticked past the eight-minute mark. Fox scored three times before halftime, then opened the second half with three more unanswered markers to pull out to a 10-3 lead. Whitman netted two of the next three goals -- one from Bea Sheffer and the other from Melville -- but the Bruins ran off four unanswered goals to extend their lead to 15-5 with 20 minutes left on the clock.

Hannah Trettenero and Sheffer alternated goals over the final 15 minutes but the late flurry ran out of time as the final horn sounded sending Whitman to its first loss.

"There are very few teams that finish undefeated," said Robinson. "We're certainly disappointed as anyone would expect, but I'm proud and the players should be proud of how a first-year program in only its second game -- ever -- went toe-to-toe with a team not only in its second year but already playing its seventh game of this season."

Sheffer led the Whitman attack with three goals and picked up help from Melville and Trettenero who added two each. Sheffer posted game-highs in ground ball pick-ups, with six, and with five caused turnovers. She and Fox's Miranda Edwords shared top honors at the dot with six draw-controls apiece. The Bruins' attack was paced by Edwords who finished with four goals but Ashlie Hernandez and Jessica Adrian chipped in with three goals each to help keep the visitors in front of the pesky Missionaries.

Kolin took the win in goal for the Bruins, coming up with 10 saves. Whitman's starting keeper, Savannah McNichol, registered the loss despite also coming away with 10 saves.

The Missionaries have a weekend off before welcoming a pair of conference opponents to Walla Walla on the following weekend. The University of Puget Sound comes to town Saturday, March 28 with Pacific (Ore.) University hitting the Athletic Fields the Sunday.