Anastasia Mergner, Franklin & Marshall
LANCASTER, Pa. – No. 4 Franklin & Marshall downed McDaniel 20-6 in Centennial Conference (CC) women's lacrosse Saturday afternoon at Tylus Field. The Diplomats improved to 10-1 with a perfect 4-0 mark in conference action, while the Green Terror dropped to 8-3, 3-1 CC.
The Diplomats started out strong with six goals in the opening seven minutes of action and increased their lead to 10-0 at 10:02. Brittney Jorgenson netted three goals in the run, Gabby Frank picked up two, while Paige Moriarty, Megan Kelly, Emily D'Erasmo and Emily Everdell all picked up a goal in the first 20 minutes of action.
McDaniel finally put a point on the board at 6:14 before Yen Baker found Claire Jackson at 4:48 to put F&M up 11-1. The Green Terror answered with two scores and Kelly connected with Baker with a little under a minute to play to make 12-3 at the break.
Danielle Entrot brought McDaniel within eight on a free position early in the second and F&M countered with five consecutive goals. Everdell started the run at 28:01 followed by goals from Frank and D'Erasmo and two from Grace Saliba for a 17-4 F&M lead. Julia Jacobs netted back-to-back goals for McDaniel and Kimberly Abruzzo answered with two of her own to close out the game and give the Diplomats 20-6 win.
Frank finished with three goals and two assists and Moriarty assisted on four goals and scored once, while Jorgenson and Saliba both scored three goals and dished out one assist. Everdell, Abruzzo, D'Erasmo and Claire Jackson all ended with two scores and Moriarty along with Kelly and Baker each struck once. Anastasia Mergner and Siobhan Burke each had an assist.
Mergner caused three turnovers to pace the defense and collected three draws, while Samantha Blicht and Kelly caused two turnovers. Caroline Doran and Saliba both collected four ground balls and Taylor Freud, Kelly and Mergner notched three draws apiece.
Kaitlin Hardt picked up the win with three saves and improved to 5-0 and Lily Galzerano took the loss with 16 saves.
F&M outshot McDaniel 43-13, went 15-for-16 clears and held a 15-13 edge in draws.
The Diplomats return to action Wednesday when F&M travels to Catholic for a 4:00 p.m. game.