ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- Victoria Graham scored eight times and picked up two assists to help Eastern University Women's Lacrosse to a 23-14 win over Misericordia University. The win came on a day when the Eastern program honored its three seniors prior to the game.

Julia Furniss, Lindsey Corbitt, and Priscilla Peters each helped to lead the Eastern program through some tough times this year. The coaching staff recognized the persistence and positive attitude of each of the three leaders in a short ceremony with their parents before the game.

Once the game began, the Eastern offense started almost instantly from an unexpected source. Junior defender Rachelle Lehman scored twice in the first four minutes. Lehman entered the game with only a single point on one goal. She scored the two early goals and added an assist.

Graham completed her hat trick in the first thirteen minutes to put the Eagles up 9-3. Furniss increased the Eastern lead with her second of four on the afternoon on a free position shot at the midway point of the first half. Furniss had three career goals coming into her senior year. After today's game she has 19 goals and five assists.

The cougars grabbed two back before Sara Blaylock bounced in a free position shot and Graham slammed home her fourth of the day on a nice feed from Shannon Wilcox to put the Eagles up 12-5. 

Misericordia (0-14, 0-5 Freedom) pushed back with four straight goals. The Cougars had the ball with a chance to close the gap to two goals, but a shot went high and Furniss battled for a ground ball behind the cage. The senior Captain ran the clear and found Graham off to the side. Eastern's leading scorer attacked the cage. Despite take a bit of a shove on the way in, Graham stuck home her fifth of the day with 1.3 seconds left on the clock.

The goal checked the Cougar momentum and gave some back to an Eastern team that has seen several leads disappear through the season. 

Freshman goalie Cortney Andes made 11 of her 16 saves in the first half. 

The Cougars scored the first goal of the second half, but the Eagles responded with goals from Furniss and Blaylock and another pair of Graham goals. The Cougars briefly cut the lead back to five on a couple occasions, but each time the Eagles responded with at least another goal.

Blaylock converted all three of her free-position attempts and finaished with a career-best seven goals, and Wilcox had two goals and two assists. Graham had a team-best seven draw controls and Blaylock had six. 

Katie Pagnotta led the Cougars with four goals.

The Eagles (1-12, 1-4 Freedom) are at Arcadia University for their final Freedom Conference game of the year on Tuesday night.