Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/22/10
With an exclamation point, the Haverford College women’s lacrosse team played their win into the Centennial Conference postseason tournament for the first time after defeating league rival Swarthmore College, 13-6, under a steady but light rain Wednesday night.
The victory over the Garnet (7-8, 1-7 CC) not only pushed Haverford (12-3, 5-3 CC) into the playoffs but also assured the Fords of hosting the No. 4 versus No. 5 game at Swan Field next Wednesday against Dickinson College.
Wednesday night’s game saw the Fords jump out to a 4-1 lead a little more than halfway through the opening period but Swarthmore pulled within two, 5-3, by halftime then got even closer with the opening goal of the second stanza.
Perrin Downing scored off a feed from Alexa Pesche to kick off a 5-0 run by the Fords, though, that in effect iced the game for the hosts. Nora Proops followed with an unassisted score after Downing’s, then Jen Schmidt, Downing, again, and Pesce completed the string of unanswered goals that pushed the lead to 10-4 by the midway point of the half.
Proops ended up with a game-high four goals while Downing and Pesce added three apiece. Schmidt netted a pair and team scoring leader Josie Ferri added one to bring her season total to 43 goals.
Swarthmore’s offensive attack was led by Amy Vachal and Marie Murtryn who each scored twice in the Garnet’s losing effort.
Leah Hammerschlag started the game between the pipes for the Fords and earned the win while Siobhan Neitzel took over at the half and registered five saves over the final 30 minutes. Swarthmore’s Allison Grein also had a fine night in goal helping to keep the score close early and finishing with 13 saves on the night.
The Fords have one more game to think about before the playoffs begin next week as they’ll welcome, perhaps an angry, Franklin & Marshall squad to Swan this Saturday for the Fords’ Senior Day in the regular season finale for both teams.
F&M, the No. 4 team in the nation, dropped from the top spot in the league standings after falling to host and 6th-ranked Gettysburg while Haverford was clinching its own tournament spot. If the Fords beat Dickinson next Wednesday they will travel to Gettysburg for the tournament semifinals on the following weekend instead of Lancaster.
