LEWISTON, Maine -- Senior Katie Allard matched her season-high with four goals and the No. 21 nationally ranked Bates women's lacrosse team rallied to defeat the Williams College Ephs 13-11 Saturday afternoon at Garcelon Field.

With the win, Bates (6-3, 2-2 NESCAC) defeats Williams (3-3, 1-3 NESCAC) in women's lacrosse for the fourth straight season. 

The Bobcats didn't take their first lead of the day until sophomore Margaret Smith (Wilton, Conn.) scored on an assist from junior Avery MacMullen (New Haven, Conn.) with 23:21 left in regulation to put Bates up 8-7. 

The Ephs tied the game less than a minute later and the teams traded goals after that, making the score 9-9 with 9:21 remaining after Claire Fitzpatrick scored her team-high fourth goal of the game for Williams. 

With 8:21 to go, sophomore Summer Dias (West Newton, Mass.) connected with first-year Dana Swartz (North Andover, Mass.) for the latter's second career goal, giving Bates a 10-9 lead the Bobcats did not surrender down the stretch. 

Allard (Ridgewood, N.J.) scored three of her four goals in the final 5:40 of action. With 5:40 left, sophomore Kathryn Grennon (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) found Allard for her second goal of the afternoon and with 2:27 remaining Swartz assisted Allard for another tally, putting Bates up 12-9 and capping off a 3-0 run. 

Mason Yonge cut the Bates lead to two with 2:08 left before Allard extended the Bobcat advantage back to three with 1:05 remaining on an assist from Smith. 

The Bobcats recorded nine assists on the day, with Smith tallying a game-high three to go along with a pair of goals. 

After surrendering seven goals in the first half, the Bates defense held the Ephs to just four goals in the final 30 minutes of action. Senior captain Eliza Statile (Ipswich, Mass.) tallied 10 saves in the cage on 21 shots. Statile also recorded a game-high five ground balls. Williams goalkeeper Kami Cisneros tallied nine saves on 22 shots.

Bates won the ground ball battle 25-20 on the day, with a 12-7 edge in the second half alone. 

Emma TenBarge turned in a strong afternoon for Williams, tallying two goals, three ground balls, a game-high 10 draw controls and one caused turnover. Junior Liv Sandford (Kennebunk, Maine) paced Bates with six draw controls.  Defensively, senior captain Joanna Schafer (Meriden, N.H.) and junior Caroline Kerrigan (Falls Church, Va.) both caused a pair of turnovers for the Bobcats. Korinna Garfield and Sophia Millay paced Williams with two caused turnovers each.

After trailing for most of the first half, Grennon tied the game at five with 6:41 left in the half on an assist from Smith. Grennon finished with two goals, one assist, one ground ball and one caused turnover. 

The Ephs capped off the first half with a pair of goals to go up by two at halftime. 

Sophomore Jillian Futter (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) opened the second half with an impressive coast-to-coast unassisted goal, cutting the deficit to one and Allard tied the game with 25:14 to go, knotting the score at seven. Williams never led again.

Bates is back in action next Saturday at Hamilton. Game time is set for 11am.