One day after freezing rain fell in St. Davids, the Eastern University women's lacrosse team hosted Messiah College for an important MAC contest on the nicest day of the year to date. The visiting Falcons emerged with a 14-12 win to remain unbeaten in MAC play. Katie Choquette scored four times or the Eagles.

The Falcons held an 8-6 lead at half and stretched that edge to 13-9 with just under 18 minutes to play in the game. After an extended period where neither team scored, the Eagles scored three straight to close the gap to 13-12 with three minutes to play. Messiah was able to gain possession and hold the ball for much of the finish and Jaime Gerhart collected her own rebound and tucked home her third of the game with 59 seconds to play to seal the victory for the visitors.

Erin Reimel put the Eagles up 1-0 off the opening draw. The senior midfielder found an opening on the left side and drove to goal before dropping a high shot in for her 11th of the year. Messiah tied the score two minutes later when their first year standout Rachel Dirksen finished her first of four on the afternoon. Grace Griffith and Jessie Basch scored to put Eastern up 3-1. Basch's tally came after Griffith earned a free position attempt and elected to dump the ball to her senior teammate on the crease rather than take a contested shot. The Falcons, however, roared back with three straight, including two from Dirksen, to secure a 4-3 lead.

Basch pulled the next draw back toward her own goal and Sarah Hager. Hager was unable to secure the draw, but reached over her mark and batted the ball twenty yards the other way toward Erin Fries. Fries controlled the draw and executed a beautiful two on one transition with Griffith to tie the score at four. 

Griffith, who finished the afternoon with three goals and three assists, scored midway through the period to give the Eagles a brief lead before the Falcons collected two goals in less than a minute to take the lead.Choquette scored her first of the day on a feed from Basch to tie the game before Gerhart and Dirksen finished the half with goals to put the Falcons up 8-6 at the break. 

Eastern held an 18-11 edge in shots in the opening period, but Messiah Goalie Jen Venter made nine of her 14 stops in the opening half to help the visitors to the lead. Messiah scored to go up three just seconds into the second half.

Choquette and Griffith scored goals just thirty seconds apart to bring the Eagles back into the game at 9-8. The Falcons however, scored four of the next five goals of the contest to take their biggest lead of the contest with 18 to play. The second half saw a great deal of physical play as players from both teams received yellow cards early.

Basch buried her second of the game and 44th of the year with 11:10 remaining to start the Eagle comeback. Griffith set up the play with an underhanded flip to an overlapping Basch. The Eastern senior caught the ball in stride and fired a powerful shot to the upper corner from just inside the arc.

Choquette scored her fourth of the game with 9:28 to go on a broken play. The senior from Rhode Island picked up a bouncing ball off a deflection in traffic ten yards out and after a quick dodge, earned a line to goal and slipped a shot just over the charging Venter.

The Eagles then ran into problems. Two yellow cards in quick succession forced the Eastern team to play down a pair of players for almost three full minutes. The Eastern defense held strong and even earned possession for the attack, but the momentum stalled with the Eagles down two. After returning to full strength, the Eagles earned a second chance following a yellow card for the visitors.

Messiah was called for offsides, and the Eastern team was able to take advantage of their numerical superiority in transition. First-year midfielder Courtney Reinhold had possession and ran the ball into the attack. The All-American hitter in volleyball showed she can pass as well as she drew the last defender and goalie to her and dropped a well-weighted pass to Choquette right on the doorstep.

The Eagles held a 34-25 advantage in shots, and won half the draws in the game, but fell just short as the visitors were able to hold enough possession late to seal the victory. At 5-3 in the league, the Eagles have what amounts to be a playoff game here Saturday against 4-4 Wilkes. That game begins at noon.

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