The Oglethorpe women's lacrosse team dropped a 23-9 decision to SAA opponent Sewanee Friday night in a game that was played, in large part, in heavy fog in Sewanee, Tenn.

The home-standing Tigers got off to a good start in the first half, building a 10-goal lead over the game's first 15 minutes. At that point, a huge fog bank rolled in, making things even more difficult for the Stormy Petrels. However, they performed much better in the second half even with the weather conditions, playing Sewanee fairly evenly over the course of the second period and scoring six goals.

The Petrels were outshot 33-14 over the course of the game, including 28-13 on goal, but they continued to play well on the draw, as they corralled 18 of them to the Tigers' 16. The Petrels recorded seven ground balls to Sewanee's 15 and turned the ball over 19 times to the Tigers' nine.

The Petrels continued to get some fine individual performances from junior midfielders Michelle Vasques and Sydney Sparks. Vasques scored four of the team's nine goals, doing so while putting five of her six total shots on goal. She also tallied an assist on the night. Meanwhile, Sparks posted a hat trick while putting all four of her shots on target. Junior defender Tate Davis scored a goal and passed out an assist, too, while securing 10 draw controls for her team.

The Tigers got off to a 4-0 start over the game's opening five minutes, but the Petrels answered with a goal from Sparks off an assist from Davis to make the score 4-1 with 25:47 remaining in the opening half. The Tigers came back with seven straight goals to take an 11-1 lead with 16:55 left as the fog began to roll in. Two straight Vasques goals quickly made it 11-3, but Sewanee ended the period with a 16-3 lead.

The Petrels played much better in the second half, though, only getting outscored 7-6 over the course of the final half-hour. Sewanee started with four straight goals, but the Petrels got a goal from Sparks with just under 24 minutes left and then got four goals in a row starting at the 20-minute mark. Vasques and senior midfielder Juliana Altman scored goals within 90 seconds of each other to make it 21-6, then Davis followed at the 12:49 mark and Vasques scored again with 11:33 left. Sparks ended the scoring for the Petrels with 4:49 left, making it 22-9.

"The fog was definitely a distraction," said Head Coach Marissa Giannerini, "but we came out and played them evenly in the second half during the height of it. We got off to another slow start but were able to make some position adjustments that will help us moving forward."

The Petrels fall to 1-7 on the season, 0-4 in SAA play, with the defeat. They'll stay in Sewanee overnight and take on Greensboro in a neutral-site game at the same venue tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern.