HOBOKEN, N.J. – The Lebanon Valley Women's Lacrosse team put up a great fight against 18th-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon at the DeBaun Athletic Complex in Hoboken, New Jersey, but the Ducks used a string of nine consecutive goals between the second and third quarters to defeat the Dutchmen 15-5. The win gives Stevens the top seed in the MAC Freedom Championship next week while LVC will be the second seed.
 
The Dutchmen (12-5, 6-1 MAC Freedom) came out strong against the Ducks (13-4, 7-0 MAC Freedom) as the teams battled up and down the field with neither team able to score over the first half of the quarter. LVC called a timeout following a green card by Stevens with a little under eight minutes on the clock. Alyssa Wene cleared the ball and then found Emily Beard open in front of the crease for the first goal of the game. The Ducks answered right back to even the score at one. They then took the lead with a pair of back-to-back goals in a span of 35 seconds to go up 3-1. A free position goal with right around two minutes to play gave Stevens a three-goal advantage after the first period.
 
The Ducks scored another free position goal to extend the lead to 5-1 in the first couple minutes of the second quarter. LVC battled back and Wene had a free position shot blocked before Elizabeth Morgan scored off an assist by Katie DeWitt with 10:19 left to cut the deficit to 5-2. Neither team scored until Stevens had three goals in a little over a minute span to push the advantage to six. Gigi Ditsky made four saves over the final five minutes of the quarter to keep the Ducks from adding to the lead.
 
The third quarter began with a goal for the Ducks on the first possession of the half. They added two more goals over the next five minutes to increase the lead to 11-2. Stevens would score three more times only allowing the Dutchmen to take two shots in the third to go up by 12 at 14-2. DeWitt put a shot high and then Morgan had a shot saved.
 
LVC stopped the scoring run early in the fourth quarter as Morgan scored a couple minutes in off a pass by Beard. Beard won the following draw control and eared a free position shot that was saved as the Dutchmen started to build some momentum back in their favor. DeWitt got the advantage down to 10 with a goal to make it 14-4 with just over 10 minutes to play. Neither team scored over the next five minutes until the Ducks were able to score their final goal of the game. Wene scored unassisted with around 2:30 remaining to set the final score.
 
Inside the Box

• The Dutchmen had four different goal scorers who each had two points each against the Ducks.
• Morgan led the scoring with two goals on five shots. She scored at least two goals in all but one conference game including four games with five goals. The sophomore finished the regular season with 40 goals.
• Beard had a goal and an assist with three draw controls. Beard has a conference-leading 64 goals this year including 29 in conference games. She also has 18 assist to finish second in points at 82.
• Wene also had a goal and an assist in the game. The senior finished the regular season with 74 points on 55 goals and 19 assists.
• DeWitt recorded her second consecutive multi-point game and sixth of the season with one goal and one assist. She also had a caused turnover.
• Chloe Moser won two draw controls and had two ground balls to give her 118 draw controls and 48 ground balls on the season. She broke the program record for draw controls in a season.
• Ditsky made a season-high 16 saves in goal and led the team with five ground balls and two caused turnovers.
• Annelise Vetter had two ground balls and a caused turnover.

Up Next
The second-seeded Dutchmen will host third-seeded DeSales University on Wednesday evening in the MAC Freedom Semifinals. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Arnold Field. The top-seeded Ducks will host fourth-seeded Misericordia University in the other semifinal pairing.

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