Mounting a furious comeback with a flurry of goals late, the UW-River Falls women's lacrosse team couldn't quite overcome Illinois Wesleyan, falling 12-8 on the road in the Falcons' season opener.

The Titans got on the board early, scoring the first goal just over a minute and a half in. Junior Emma Kohlbeck, who has been a scoring machine in the previous two seasons, wasted no time living up to her reputation, answering about four minutes later to tie things up.

Illinois Wesleyan, who already had three games under their belt leading into this matchup, quickly put in three more goals before Kohlbeck scored again to stop the bleeding.The Titans put two more in to go up 7-2 and seemingly grab full momentum, until Falcons' sophomore Emily Herdine put in two goals, followed by a third from Kohlbeck to yank the game back into reach heading into the break.

In the second, both teams took a few minutes to get settled in before the Titans struck twice within 10 seconds to extend their lead to 9-5. With their backs against the wall for the second time, the Falcons responded yet again with back-to-back goals from Herdine and Kohlbeck within a minute of each other. Five minutes later, Herdine took advantage of a free position shot to cut the lead to one at 9-8.

UW-RF continued to push forward in an attempt to take the game, but the Titans were able to add in three more goals to win it 12-8.

Despite the loss, the Falcons showed some good glimpses in the season opener, holding an edge in shots on goal (26-24), ground balls (19-17), and caused turnovers (8-5).

The Falcons next matchup will be Tuesday, March 16 at Augsburg. Game is set for 4:30pm.