Grace Griffith scored three of her six goals in a two minute spell in the first half to help Eastern University Women's Lacrosse to a 15-7 home win over Alvernia University.

With the game level at 2-2, the Crusaders picked up a yellow card with 11:36 to play in the first half. Griffith took advantage of the extra plaer opportunity with her first of the afternoon on a feed from Kelly Dando. Shortly thereafter, the Crusaders drew a second yellow card and Griffith buried two more goals before the penalty time was fully served.

Krystal Cairns scored from the right side of the circle on a Griffith feed to put the Eagles up 6-2 before Sam Landis scored her first of the day for the visitors to close the gap to 6-3 at the break. Eastern held a 17-11 edge in shots and scooped three more ground balls than their guests. Despite the lead, the Eastern staff expressed frustration at their squad's eleven first half turnovers. "We were not being patient," Coach Azzarano said, "and we were giving away chances by forcing things into pressure. We needed to step up the defensive intensity and take care of the ball in the attack in the second half."

The Eagles fixed things fairly quickly. Griffith scored just seconds into the second half, and Jess Field buried a free position shot to push the edge to 8-3. On defense, the Eagles stepped up the pressure in the midfield, and they forced the Crusaders into 15 second half turnovers. For the game, Eastern was able to hold the Crusaders to just 13-23 on clear attempts.

Griffith scored her fifth of the day and 20th of the year with just under twenty-two minutes to play. The junior attacker took a low pass from Cairns right on the doorstep and fired a shot while seated to give Eastern a 9-3 edge. Alyssa Verillo controlled the ensuing draw and went straight to goal to close the gap to 9-4.

Dando scored her second of the day and eleventh of the year on a pass from Courtney Reinhold before Megan Corrigan scored for the guests. Field then sparked a three goal burst with a free position shot. Field, who has scored three goals for the second straight game, now has eight goals on the year. Griffith and Kendall Rood finished the run to give Eastern an eight goal edge with nine minutes to play.

Both teams scored twice over the final nine minutes. The Eastern staff was pleased with the increased intensity in the second half. Though the Eagles only took fifteen shots, they scored on nine of them, and they showed great effectiveness in forcing turnovers. Sophomore midfielder Courtney Reinhold caused five turnovers and picked up three ground balls for the Eagles.

Eastern (2-3, 2-0 MAC) returns to action on Wednesday night at Widener University.