FOND DU LAC, Wis. - The Ripon College women's soccer team outshot Marian 18-14 Tuesday night, but the Red Hawks still lost 4-3, allowing a two-goal lead slip away in the second half.

Marian (3-2-0) took the first lead of the game in the 32nd minute on Alyssa Lennon's second goal of the season. That was answered seven minutes later by Ripon's Jamie Wegner, who scored her first goal of the year from the far side of the field, thanks to an assist by Paige Birschbach. Just over one minute later, Birschbach assisted on another score, as Cassidy Blaney's first collegiate goal gave Ripon their first lead of the night.

Ripon (3-2-1) added to that lead in the second half when Morgan Johnson scored her second goal of the season on yet another assist from Birschbach, moving her into seventh place on the school's career assist leaders. Marian battled back after that, scoring on a Carley Schmit goal in the 56th minute. Alexis Peterson would add another Marian goal 11 minutes later to tie the score, and Schmit would play the heroine in the 85th minute, scoring her second goal of the half to give the Sabres the win.

"Despite the result, this was our best performance so far. Our chance creation was fantastic, and we had multiple opportunities to put the game away early," Ripon Head Coach Sam Schroeder said. "When you leave the door open for the opponent, these kinds of things happen and they snuck back into the game. This is something we really need to learn from and I can't wait to get our team back on the practice field." 

Morgan Smith and Jessica Bykowski split time at Goal Keeper for the Red Hawks, each playing one half, and recording three saves apiece. Marian's Alysha Kallas played the entire game in goal, saving 11 shots.

The Red Hawks will be in action again on Saturday in their first conference game of the season when they'll face defending Midwest Conference champion Lake Forest College, which defeated Ripon in last year's MWC Championship game. Saturday's contest will begin at 1 p.m. in Ripon and can be seen at,http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/#.