BALTIMORE – Down just one goal at halftime, Rutgers women's lacrosse (5-6, 0-2) dropped a 16-9 Big Ten Conference game to No. 18 Johns Hopkins (8-2, 1-0) on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. With the Scarlet Knights trailing 7-6 at the midway point, the Blue Jays used a 4-0 scoring run out of the locker room to pull away for the league win.
 
Sophomore Taralyn Naslonski netted her team-high seventh hat trick with her three goals and redshirt junior Dakota Pastore contributed a team-high four points on three assists and a score in the loss. Redshirt freshman Kameron Halsall had 13 saves for the second most in a game in her career, while RU won the ground-ball battle, 21-14.
 
It was a back-and-forth affair in the first 30 minutes, as Pastore was the first two strike for Rutgers to make it a 2-1 game at the 22:39 mark in the half. JHU would add another score before the Scarlet Knights went on a 3-0 scoring run to take their first lead of the game.
 
Junior Samantha Budd raced past a host of Johns Hopkins' defenders for an unassisted score, while Pastore found freshman Marin Hartshorn and senior Abbey Brooks for back-to-back tallies, as Brooks' goal made it 4-3 Rutgers with 10 minutes left in the opening period.
 
After the Blue Jays responded with their own 3-0 scoring run to regain the lead, senior Tess Howland and Naslonski closed out the first half with goals for the 7-6 result at the half.
 
However, Johns Hopkins outscored Rutgers, 9-3, in the second half to come away with the win.
 
Rutgers' tough schedule continues as it hosts No. 2 Maryland next Saturday at HighPoint.com Stadium.
 
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