ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- On a day more suited for ducks than Eagles, Eastern University Women's Lacrosse took an important step forward in the MAC playoff race with a rain-drenched 19-9 home win over the Widener University Pride. Grace Griffith scored eight goals and added two assists to pace the Eastern attack.

 The Eagles set the tone early as they jumped to a four goal lead in the opening three and a half minutes of action. Courtney Reinhold scored her first of two on the day to start the scoring 63 seconds into the contst. Kendall Rood Created the play with a  nice feed from behind the cage to the cutting Reinhold.

After Rood grabbed the next draw and Griffth raced to the cage for her first of the day.  Though the Pride held a slight 16-13 edge in draw controls for the day, Eastern claimed the first three, and seemed to grab them at critical times thereafter. Allie Fultz grabbed the next draw and Griffith finished on another feed from Rood.Rood finished the afternoon with a pair of goals and a team-best three assists.

That goal was the 200th tally of Griffith's career. As the day passed,the senior standout would move past assistant Coach Jessie Basch (201) into the fourth spot on Eastern's career goal scoring list. She finished the afternoon four points short of the fourth spot on Eastern's career points list.

"Allie [Fultz] was really good today," said Head Coach Camrin Azzarano, "she won several [a team-high 4] draw controls and she played great position defense for us. She also made good decisions in the attack."

Kelly Dando made it 4-0 at the with 26:45 to play when she ripped a shot from the left side alley stick-side high. Dando scored three times on the day. Widener scored twice to cut the deficit in half, but Christy Hild scored her first of four on the day and Griffith added her third to briefly restore the four goal edge. 

The teams traded goals and Widener cut the deficit to 8-6 on Calina Walz's third tally of the afternoon with just under three minutes left in the first period. Reinhold then put her stamp on the game as she ran out a clear and fed Hild for a goal with 1:12 to play and scored her second of the day in another transition opportunity.

Though the Eagles controlled much of the action, goalie Lindsey Corbitt made all five of her saves in the opening half of play to help the home side keep momentum. Neither team cleared particularly well in the wet conditions, but the Eagles were able to limit the damage of those turnovers by playing good position defense and being selective in their risk-taking.

Hild scored on a free position shot shortly after half, and Griffith stretched the lead to six. The Eagles would add seven more tallies on the afternoon, but Azzarano stressed how pleased she was with her team's progress on defense through the match.

While the victory does not secure a spot in the post-season field, it gives the Eagles an important win and a tie-breaker over the Pride should that situation arise. The Eagles return to action at Rowan on Thursday night at 6:00. Fans unable to attend the game will be able to follow the action online through Rowan's video feed by clicking here or on the link on the schedule page. They return to league action with another important test at Lycoming on Saturday.