GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Top-ranked Gettysburg College battled third-ranked Washington and Lee University in an evenly matched game that came right down to the wire. The Bullets prevailed 11-9 in non-conference action at Clark Field Saturday afternoon.
 
Gettysburg played against its first top-10 foe of the season and remained unbeaten (4-0), while Washington and Lee fell to a 3-2 record on the season. The Bullets have now won the last six meetings with the Generals' last victory coming in 1993.
 
Junior Liza Barr (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) registered her second four-goal performance of the season to lead the Bullets offense. Sophomores Kerry McKeever (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville) and Bri Stokes (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) each posted two goals with the former also tossing out three assists. Senior Steph Colson (Westminister, Md./Manchester Valley), junior Courtney Patterson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central), and junior Ella Orzechowski (Elkridge, Md./Howard) each tallied a goal with Orzechowski adding two assists.
 
The Bullets held the Generals to nine goals, the second lowest total of the season for Washington and Lee as the team had scored 43 goals in its previous three games. Gettysburg finished with a 28-25 lead in shots and led in ground balls 15-12, while both teams finished with 11 turnovers.
 
Patterson collected eight draw controls and three ground balls, while McKeever notched four draw controls. Junior Claire Macatee (Street, Md./North Harford) produced three ground balls and three caused turnovers, while junior Daphne Budd (Darien, Conn./Darien) tallied three caused turnovers to go with three ground balls for the Gettysburg defense. Senior goalie Bailey Pilder (Rowayton, Conn./New Canaan) posted 11 saves.
 
Dani Murray and Haley Tucker led Washington and Lee with three goals each. Catherine Arrix gathered three ground balls and two caused turnovers, while Ellie Aburn recorded nine saves in the goal.
 
The teams traded goals in the opening minutes of the first half with the General's leading scorer Katherine Faria striking first, but shortly after that McKeever tied it up at 1-1. Washington and Lee then tacked on two straight goals in six-minutes to make it a 3-1 contest. Colson broke the streak as she found the back of the net to cut the deficit down to one with 11:02 to go in the half. The Generals' then corralled the draw control and ran down into the Bullets' territory to tally its final goal of the half. Gettysburg rallied back as they scored three-straight goals in the last 7:35 to hold a 5-4 lead at the half. Barr, Orzechowski, and Patterson each posted a tally with Patterson's coming off a free-position shot.
 
Barr started the second half by knotting the first tally off a dish from Orzechowski to push the lead 6-4. Moments later, the Generals Haley Tucker won the draw control to set up Faria with her second goal of the game. Barr then struck again five minutes later as she scored her third tally with 20:22 left. Washington and Lee pounded three consecutive goals, including two that came from free-position shots, to take an 8-7 advantage with under 15 minutes to go. A three-goal spurt by the Bullets over the next 10 minutes lifted them to a 10-8 lead with 4:57 left. The visitors did not back down as Tucker connected on a free-position shot 53 seconds later to come within one. McKeever capped off the scoresheet with the final goal off a free-position shot to give the Bullets the 11-9 victory.
 
The Bullets won 13-of-22 draws and finished 15-of-15 on clears.
 
Gettysburg will play against Ithaca College (1-1) on Thursday, March 14, at the US Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks, Md. at 5 p.m.