ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley women's lacrosse team clinched a top two seed in the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom Championships on Saturday with a 14-13 Senior Day win over visiting DeSales University on Arnold Field.
 
The Dutchmen (10-5, 5-0 MAC Freedom) stayed perfect in conference play after getting out to a great start against the Bulldogs (10-4, 3-2 MAC Freedom). The win clinches the program a spot in the conference tournament and at least a home semifinal game heading into the final week of the regular season.
 
LVC never trailed in the game after scoring the first two goals of the game. Emily Beard gave the Dutchmen the lead after three scoreless minutes as she fired a shot into the back of the net after beating a defender. The senior then found Molly Whisler over the middle for a goal midway through the quarter to give LVC a 2-0 lead. The Bulldogs were able to cut the lead in half with a woman-up goal a couple of minutes later, but the Dutchmen responded with a pair of goals in a span of a minute to make it 4-1. Alyssa Wene scored with just under five minutes to play on a free position shot and then nearly a minute later Elizabeth Morgan found Erin Zieber cutting towards the goal for a woman-up goal. Wene added a goal with 1:26 on the clock to give the Dutchmen a 5-1 lead after the first 15 minutes.
 
Wene completed her hat trick to begin the second quarter as she scored unassisted just over a minute and a half in. The Bulldogs responded with a goal 15 seconds later as they won the draw control and scored a quick goal. The Dutchmen countered with another goal from Beard as Morgan picked up her second assist of the afternoon on a great pass from behind the goal. Once again, DSU was able to respond with a quick goal to keep it a four-goal advantage for LVC. The Bulldogs added two more goals with nine and a half minutes to play and with a little over eight minutes to play that cut the lead down to 7-5. Wene stopped the run with her fourth goal as she ran right by a defender and scored with seven minutes left in the half. The Bulldogs brought the deficit back down to two on a rebound shot that was put back for a goal forcing the Dutchmen to call a timeout with a little over two minutes to play. Hana Neff sent the Dutchmen into halftime with a three-goal advantage as she scored unassisted with 29 seconds remaining.
 
The teams battled to begin the second half with neither team able to score over the first four minutes. The Dutchmen got on the board as Beard tallied her third goal of the game off an assist from Zieber. DSU came right back down the field and scored to bring the lead to three goals. Beard and Morgan then scored back-to-back unassisted goals to give LVC a 12-7 advantage with 6:30 on the clock. Beard beat her defender around a screen while Morgan raced around from behind the net and beat the goalie for her first goal of the game. Wene gave LVC their biggest lead of the game at 13-7 with her fifth goal of the contest in the final 30 seconds of the quarter. DeSales won the following draw and scored 17 seconds later to make it 13-8 heading into the fourth.
 
The Bulldogs started their furious fourth quarter comeback attempt with a pair of goals in the first five minutes to bring the lead down to three. The Dutchmen stopped the run with a goal by Emily Beard following a timeout to put the lead up to 14-10. DSU scored a woman-up free position goal with eight minutes to play and then had another free position goal with five minutes left to cut the lead down to two. Wene nearly put the game away with four minutes left but her shot went off the post. Bethany Cohee then had her shot saved giving the Bulldogs the ball with 2:25 remaining. DeSales was able to score with 1:10 left bringing the score to 14-13. Wene grabbed the draw control and LVC held onto the ball to close out the game.
 
Inside the Box

• Beard finished the game with six points on five goals and one assist on nine total shots. The senior has scored at least five goals in each of the past three games and eight times this year.
• Wene scored five goals on nine shots and won eight draw controls. The junior has scored at least five goals four times this season. Her eight draw controls tied her season high.
• Morgan led the team with two assists and added a goal for three points.
• Zieber had one goal, one assist, and three draw controls.
• Neff and Whisler added a goal each.
• Allison Keeney and Katie Giusti led a strong defensive effort with a caused turnover and two ground balls each.
• Jamie Handwerger made seven saves in goal to pick up her 10th win of the year.
• LVC had a 32-29 shot advantage and were 15-16 on clear attempts.

Up Next
The Dutchmen will put their undefeated conference record on the line this Wednesday with the final road game of the regular season. LVC will head to Madison, New Jersey for a 4 p.m. start against FDU-Florham.

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