ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- Eastern University Women's Lacrosse
celebrated senior day with a convincing 16-10 home win over the visiting
Colonels from Wilkes University. Anna Charlebois scored six times and
Cortney Andes turned away 17 shots to lift the Eagles to their third
straight win and into a spot in the Freedom Conference Tournament.
After
a spring full of rain and cold, the two teams had to deal with bright
sun and unseasonably warm temperatures. After recognizing Ariana
Borreggine and Rachelle Lehman with a short ceremony before the game,
the Eagles jumped out of the gate with three goals in the first four
minutes of action. Jenn McKelvie found a seam in the Colonel defense and
opened the scoring with her first of three only 83 seconds into the
game. Moments later Charlebois buried her first tally of the afternoon.
The sophomore standout picked up her second of the day on a pass from
Steph Hogan for a 3-0 lead.
Madeleine Brownsey converted the first
free position attempt of the day for Wilkes to cut the Eastern lead to
3-1. The Colonels had 15 free position attempts in the game, but they
were only able to solve Andes one more time from eight meters out. The
junior goalie stopped 11 shots in the second half to help her side hold
the lead.
Charlebois answered the Brownsey goal with her third, and Julie Haggan finished a free-position attempt for a 5-1 lead. Wilkes
scored the next two goals to make the score 5-3, but the Eagles
responded with three goals inside a minute. Stephanie Hogan scored the
first goal and then fed Victoria Rath for the second. Jacquelyn Janda
then found McKelvie on the back door for the 8-3 lead. The Eagles
collected four straight draw controls in the sequence. Hogan grabbed
three and Haggan picked up one. While the Colonels finished with a
slight edge in draw controls, the Eagles picked up several
key ones in decisive minutes. Hogan led the way with six.
Wilkes
looked poised to make another run with two straight goals, but Lehman
tucked a shot right under the crossbar for her second goal of the year.
The senior has played most of her career in the back, but she was asked
to make several runs in the attack to help preserve legs in the heat.
She looked like a natural attacker as she gathered the pass from Haggan
and scored. Eastern built the lead to 10-5 on Haggen's second of three
with 6:42 on the clock. Hogan picked up the assist on the play. Hogan
entered the week with one assist in her career. She recorded two assists
at Delaware Valley and then doubled her career total with three helpers
today.
Wilkes scored the final goal of the first half, but the
Eagles still led 10-6 at the break. Eastern held a 22-16 edge in shots
for the first half hour. Rath popped in her second of three to open the
scoring in the second half before the Colonels put together three
straight to cut the Eastern lead back to 11-9. Charlebois again proved
to be the answer with two more goals.
Andes stood tall and the
Eagles battled through the intense heat and some strong offensive
pressure from the visitors to hold on for the win. Andes made 5 saves in
the final 11 minutes and Rath, McKelvie, and Charlebois tallied for the
final margin. The final goal from Charlebois was her 52nd of the
season. That is the single highest season total since Grace Griffith put
away 71 goals in 2010.
Brownsey and Jess MacConchie each scored three times for the visitors.
Eastern will either be the third or
fourth seed in the Freedom Conference Tournament. Eastern would need
King's to lose a pair of games and would have to win against FDU next
week to move into the third spot. Eastern hosts FDU on Tuesday.
Box Score
