WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson women's lacrosse team broke open a close game with a big second half effort to earn a 17-9 win over visiting Grove City in a battle for the Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament's top seed.
The Presidents outscored the Wolverines by a 11-4 margin over the final 30 minutes. The victory is the ninth straight for the Presidents. The Red and Black finishes the regular season a perfect 8-0 in PAC play and 10-4 overall. The loss drops Grove City to 13-3 overall and 7-1 in the conference. The game was the first all-time meeting between the two programs.
Aisa Uhler (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) poured in a season-high five goals to help pace the attack.
Sarah Labovitz (Great Falls, Va./The Bullis School) tallied eight points (five goals, three assists) and added seven draw controls and five ground balls.
Amanda Effland (Frederick, Md./Frederick) added four goals and two assists to a balanced offensive effort.
Sadie Firman (Richmond, Vt. / Mount Mansfield Union) helped W&J turn the tide on the draw control in the second half. Firman grabbed five draw controls, scored a pair of goals and added an assist.
The W&J defense came through with another strong performance. Defensively,
Ella Phillips posted a season-high seven caused turnovers and a season-high six ground balls in a phenomenal individual effort.
Sam Casile (New Kensington, Pa./Plum) added to the stingy defensive unit with six ground balls and four caused turnovers.
Gabby Galla (Erie, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) and
Paige Howe (Bowie, Md. / St. John's) finished with four caused turnovers and three caused turnovers, respectively.
With just 25 seconds left in the first quarter, Uhler helped give W&J a 3-2 lead after the first with her unassisted score. Both teams scored three goals in the second quarter as W&J took a 6-5 lead into the break.
Grove City tied the score at the 11:01 mark of the third quarter. However, the Presidents took control from that point. The Red and Black tallied five straight goals to build a 12-7 lead late in the third. Labovitz accounted for three goals during the surge. The Presidents tallied five more goals in the fourth as they pulled away for the victory. Effland scored a man-down goal with 1:27 to play.
Clara Sherwood (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) scored with just 19 seconds to play.
Kaitlyn Brown (Charlotte Hall, Md./La Plata) made seven saves as she improved to 10-4 in net.
W&J honored Sherwood,
Becca Ghion (Sutersville, Pa./Yough),
Katelyn Walzer (Sewickley, Pa./North Allegheny) and
Rosa Messersmith prior to the match as part of the Senior Day festivities.
The Presidents have clinched the top seed in the upcoming PAC Tournament. W&J will host the No. 4 seed in the semifinal round Wednesday at Alexandre Stadium.
