WASHINGTON, Pa. --
Sarah Labovitz (Great Falls, Va./The Bullis School) matched a season-high with seven goals as the top-seeded Washington & Jefferson College women's lacrosse team recorded a 17-12 victory over No. 4 seed Franciscan University in the Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals.
The victory improves W&J to 9-0 on the season. The Presidents advance to the conference championship final for a fifth straight time. W&J captured back-to-back Ohio River Lacrosse Conference titles in 2016 and 2017.
W&J will host No. 3 Thiel in the PAC Championship match on Saturday, May 1 at Alexandre Stadium with a 1 p.m. start. Thiel beat No. 2 Chatham by a 23-18 score in the other semifinal game Wednesday night.
The Presidents opened the match with unassisted goals from
Becca Ghion (Sutersville, Pa./Yough) and
Sofia Jenkins (Hughesville, Md./The Calverton School) to take an early 2-0 lead. Franciscan responded with three straight goals to claim its first lead of the match with 16:35 to play in the first half.
W&J ripped off six of the final seven goals of the half to take an 8-4 edge at halftime. Labovitz got the run started with an unassisted goal that made the score 3-3. After Franciscan regained the lead, the Presidents tallied five straight scores over the final 10:27 of the first half.
Aisa Uhler (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) scored unassisted to begin the spurt.
Amanda Effland followed with a score off a pass from Jenkins that gave W&J a 5-4 lead. Labovitz,
Clara Sherwood (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) and
Amanda Effland (Frederick, Md./Frederick) scored in succession to bolster the Presidents lead to four at the break.
W&J opened with three of the first four goals of the second half to extend its edge to six (11-5) with 24:44 left. Franciscan continued to battle, trimming the deficit to as few as three goals on two separate occasions. Back-to-back goals by Sherwood and Labovitz stretched the lead back to five (14-9). The Barons would get no closer than four goals the rest of the way. Labovitz scored her seventh and final goal of the night. Her last tally came with 5:33 showing on the second half clock.
In addition to her scoring prowess, Labovitz added team highs in ground balls (7) and draw controls (4). Effland filled the stat sheet with five points (4g, 1a) to go along with four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Jenkins finished with a four-point night and three ground balls and three caused turnovers. Sherwood had the team high in caused turnovers with four.
Sam Casile (New Kensington, Pa./Plum) turned in another strong night defensively, as the sophomore finished with four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Kaitlyn Brown (Charlotte Hall, Md./La Plata) registered 11 saves during her 60 minutes of work in net.
W&J held advantages in shots (38-33), caused turnovers (22-14) and ground balls (38-23). Franciscan won 20 of the 30 draw controls in the match but committed 33 turnovers in the loss.
