COLORADO SPRING, Colo. – Lindsay Schwartz added to her league-leading goals total with four more Tuesday against Wellesley (Mass.) College, but the Blues used a five-goal second-half spurt to hold off Schwartz and her Whitman College teammates, 14-9, in a non-conference, neutral-site women's lacrosse game at Washburn Field on the campus of Colorado College.

Schwartz is pacing the Northwest Conference on the attack with 24 goals entering Tuesday's game, but Wellesley (5-1) withstood another good day from the Missionaries first-year by reeling off five unanswered markers late in the second half to build a comfortable cushion after Whitman (1-7) had closed within one goal, 8-7, with 19 minutes left in the game.

Until that moment Tuesday's contest had been a game of 'whatever you can do, we can do' for the Whitties as they matched each string of Wellesley goals with one of their own.

The Blues scored within the first minute of the game and added two more before Schwartz, Emily Jordan and Bea Sheffer responded for Whitman, knotting the game at 3-3. Wellesley broke the deadlock with another trio of unanswered goals, but again the Whitties would answer as Schwartz scored back-to-back goals to cut into deficit.

Unfortunately the Blues increased their slim one-goal margin before the halftime break by adding two more goals to allow for an 8-5 lead entering the intermission.

The deficit was cut by one in the third minute of the second half when Sheffer scored on a wrap-around from the right side of the goal, a play mirrored by Whitman's Maddie Florer eight minutes later to draw the Missionaries to within a goal with 19:04 left on the game clock.

Over the next nine minutes it seemed as if Wellesley was able to capitalize on every Whitman mistake. A turnover in the Missionaries' attacking third quickly, in 16 seconds, turned into a Blues goal to make it 9-7. Then an unsuccessful free-position opportunity transitioned into a Wellesley goal 40 seconds later, followed by a draw control win and another quick goal for the Blues. Whitman picked up the ensuing draw control win but a turnover in the attacking end eventually, 85 seconds later, became the fourth unanswered goal. And finally, a save off a shot from Schwartz became the fifth straight Wellesley tally 37 seconds later.

Sheffer found netting on a free-position attempt a minute later to end the drought and Schwartz added her final marker with 16 seconds left, but that nine-minute span by the opportunistic Blues turned the tide of the contest.

Despite that one difficult stretch, the Whitties played one of their most solid games of the season. Nearly all the final statistic totals of the contest tilted in the Missionaries' direction. They out shot the Blues, 25-23; collected more ground balls, 26-21; earned more draw-control wins, 14-11; had a higher percentage of successful clears, 17-of-21 versus Wellesley's 17-of-23; and were more successful in getting to and completing free-position attempts, 3-of-5 versus 2-of-4 by the Blues.

Two figures that kept Wellesley in the contest, though, were the 13 saves goalkeeper Wendy Nettleton came up with for the Blues, and their 11-9 edge in caused turnovers.

While Schwartz and the attack were busy at one end of Washburn's turf, a defense spearheaded by Sarah Myers was at work in the defensive third. Myers, also a first-year, not only posted game-high and career-high totals for ground balls (7) and caused turovers (5), but her ground ball pickups set a single-game team record Tuesday.

In the preseason head coach Kate Robinson talked about growing every day, and improving every day, and turning the corner from a first-year program into a second-year program by focusing on the process -- and finding their wins there -- rather than just the result. Tuesday's game was a win for Robinson and her team, it just won't show up in the win column.

The Missionaries finish off a stretch of six consecutive non-conference outings with Wednesday afternoon's game against host Colorado College. Whitman leaps back into conference competition on April 2 with a trip to Pacific (Ore.) University.