Ellie Hudson-Heck

Abby Szlachta scored with about eight minutes remaining in regulation to draw The College of Wooster within one, but Denison University responded with a late four-goal spurt to notch a 13-9 victory over the Fighting Scots in a North Coast Athletic Conference tilt Tuesday evening at Granville, Ohio.

It was a seesaw battle between the Scots (2-7, 2-3 NCAC) and Big Red (9-3, 4-1 NCAC), as Wooster trailed 4-1 midway through the first half, but then scored five consecutive goals to take a 6-4 lead early in the second.

Fittingly for this game, Denison responded with its own five-goal run, which gave it a 9-6 advantage with just over 10 minutes to play.

Wooster got right back at it moments later, as Eliza Perry dished to Ellie Hudson-Heck at the 8:32 mark, and then at 8:03, Szlachta made it a one-goal game, 9-8.

It was at that juncture that Denison stringed together another chain of goals, this time with four over just 2:46, which left the Scots looking at an unexpected 13-8 deficit with under five minutes to go.

Hudson-Heck chipped in her sixth goal of the contest, which tied a career-high, with 4:02 on the clock, but that was the last tally the Scots could muster down the stretch.

Overall, the stats were pretty even between the two teams, with Wooster holding a slight edge in groundballs (18-17) and Denison ahead in shots (26-19), but it was again on draw controls where the Scots were noticeably behind, winning just seven of 24 attempts.

Hudson-Heck's six-goal outing came just two days after she totaled six points (5 goals, 1 assists) against DePauw University. Heather Honn, Shelby Stone, and Szlachta each scored a goal in the setback, while Perry passed out two assists.

The Scots will look to keep themselves in the NCAC Tournament picture when they host Kenyon College (8-4, 2-3 NCAC) on Saturday at 1 p.m.