SPARKILL, N.Y. – The Philadelphia University women's lacrosse put together a furious rally to overcome a five-goal second-half deficit, but St. Thomas Aquinas scored with 1:42 left in regulation to hand the Rams a 12-11 non-conference loss on Saturday afternoon.

Consecutive unassisted goals from St. Thomas Aquinas' Ruth Pluviose—the team's leading scorer with five goals—put Philadelphia in an 11-6 hole with 20:07 remaining in the contest.

Playing shorthanded after a Liz Wissman (Cinnaminson, N.J./Bishop Eustace) yellow card, Liz Mower turned the momentum into Philadelphia's favor as converted a free-position shot—as part of a four-goal, two assist afternoon—at the 17:05 mark to make the score 11-7.

A pair of Philadelphia goals scored in quick consecutive brought the Rams back within two with 12:56 still to play. Laura Dunne (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) only goal of the contest came after receiving a feed from Isabella DiGnazio (Pittsburgh, Pa./Peters Twp.) at with 13:01 left. On the next sequence, Mower won the draw control, sprinted down the field, and beat Kaitlyn Lonergan for the Rams' ninth goal.

The rally continued with the Rams playing a player-up after the Spartans' Katherine Borriello picked up her second yellow card of the match at 8:57. Just over a minute into the man-up situation, Alyssa Matthews (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) scored the second of her two goals, with an assist from Katie Parent (Millville, N.J./Millville), to draw Philadelphia within one.

Samantha Ryder (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) got her name into the scoring column with the match-tying goal at the 5:09 mark to complete the comeback. Kathryn Avanzato picked up an assist on the equalizer.

The game remained tied until Rosa Prestano took a pass from Caroline Finnen and scored to put the Spartans (7-4) back in front. Prestano won the ensuing draw control and the Spartans were able to keep the ball away from the Rams and salt the game away.

Back-to-back free-position goals by Parent and Mower gave Philadelphia (2-4) an early 2-1 advantage. The Spartans came right back with three straight, the final two from Marist Parr, to move in front 4-2 with 15:56 left in the first half.

Philadelphia responded with three of the next four, including two from Parent, to even the score at five. St. Thomas Aquinas scored twice in the final 1:07 to lead 7-5 at the half.

Parent finished the match with three goals and one assist. Courtney Shaw (Langhorne, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) was Philadelphia's defensive leader with three ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Aside from her five goals, Pluviose contributed four draw controls and one ground ball. Prestano had five draw controls, three ground balls, and two caused turnovers in addition to the match-winning goal.

In net, Corrine Etter (Millville, N.J./Millville) stopped a career-high eight shots, while Lonergan recorded six saves.

Philadelphia heads to Kutztown for a non-conference clash on Tuesday, March 29 at 4 p.m.