Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/24/13
Nichole Hayes (Archbishop Wood) broke the program’s record for most goals scored in a game, pumping in nine, to lead Penn State Abington women’s lacrosse team to its second straight win with a 18-10 victory at Wilson College Wednesday Afternoon.
Tori Kimberly (Central Bucks West) scored a career-high eight goals in the game, while Katelyn Kelly (Bishop McDevitt) was responsible for Abington’s other goal in the win.
Playing with just 11 bodies on the field to start the game, the Nittany Lions (2-12, 2-5 NEAC) out hustled the Phoenix throughout the entire game. Hayes opened the first half scoring three unanswered goals in just seven minutes into the opening half for the 3-0 Abington lead, before Wilson’s Jess Menard responded with a hat-trick of her own in just less than four minutes to tie up the game with 18:58 to play.
Despite playing two man down in the second half due to injuries, Kaitlin Gossner (Bishop McDevitt) held the defensive squad together as Wilson would draw no closer than eight the rest of the way and the Nittany Lions cruised to a 10-goal victory for its second consecutive win of the season.
Wilson had a slight edge on the draw control battle, 17-11, however Abington outshot the Phoenix 50-28 and scored 4-of-17 free position goals, three of them by Kimberly. Sandy Cao (Northeast) played all 60 minutes in goal and made nine saves in the win.
The Nittany Lions return home for their next two games on Saturday, April 27 against Medialle College before hosting SUNYIT on Sunday, April 28th. The game marks the final regular season game of the year. Senior Melanie Brown (Mastery Charter) will be honored before the game .
Haverford 11, Ursinus 10
The Fords scored the last three goals of the contest, including two in the final 16 seconds of play to rally past host Ursinus in Centennial Conference action.
The last-second victory assures the Fords (12-4, 6-2 CC) of a spot in the conference playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons.
Kitty Dawson’s second goal of the game put the Bears (4-11, 1-7) in front 10-8 with just under three minutes remaining but Haverford, eyeing a berth in the conference tournament, refused to go quietly.
Junior Megan Gallagher began the rally with her third of the day at 1:55 to pull the Fords within one. The uphill climb became more difficult when Ursinus won the ensuing draw control but Haverford came through with a determined defensive effort over the next minute and a half. Aiming to run out the clock, the Bears were in no hurry to attack and tried to stall but the Fords dug deep and pestered Ursinus into its 12th turnover of the contest.
After gaining possession, Haverford immediately signaled for a timeout with less than 30 seconds to go in the game. Looking for the equalizer, Christina Gould aggressively drove to the net down the right side and was fouled. The resulting free-position attempt saw Gould find Diana Perry and the team’s leading scorer buried her 54th of the year with 16 seconds remaining.
The Fords were not finished yet as Grace Stockbower (Upper Dublin) came up with the draw control to give Haverford the chance for the win in regulation. Making the most of the opportunity, Gallagher fired her fourth of the game past goalie Margaret Philbin into the top corner of the net to cap the come-from-behind victory.
Amber Moyer paced Ursinus with three goals while Dawson and Devin Brakel each added two. Philbin (2-3) made 11 saves in the loss.
The road victory clinched third place for the Fords in the upcoming conference tournament and enabled the Haverford to match the program record for Centennial wins with six. The team is also within one victory of tying the program mark for overall wins (13).
Haverford closes out the regular season with a trip to rival Swarthmore College on Saturday afternoon. The contest against the Garnet begins at 1 p.m. Swarthmore (10-5, 4-4) enters the game tied for the fifth and final spot in the Centennial playoffs with Washington College.
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