ALLIANCE, Ohio --
Sarah Labovitz (Great Falls, Va./The Bullis School) beat her defender and scored with 52 seconds to play to lift the Washington & Jefferson College women's lacrosse team to a 16-15 win over host Mount Union in non-conference action Friday evening at Kehres Stadium in Ohio.
The loss avenges a 20-8 defeat to the Purple Raiders just a season ago. The victory Friday was the first-ever for the Presidents in the head-to-head series with the Purple Raiders.
The win is the sixth-straight for the Presidents, who improve to 7-3 overall. The loss snaps Mount Union's six-game winning streak. The Purple Raiders are now 8-2 overall in 2023.
W&J used a pair of goals from
Aisa Uhler (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) to build a 3-2 lead after the opening quarter of play. The Presidents stretched its lead to three goals early in the second quarter. Scores by
Emily Heck (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) and
Caleigh Bogats (Oakdale, Pa./Chartiers Valley) gave W&J a 5-2 advantage at the 11:41 mark.
The Purple Raiders were able to put together a run to close out the half but the Red and Black took an 8-7 lead into the break.
The entire second half provided back-and-forth action, as neither team led by more than two goals over the final 30 minutes of play. The Purple Raiders evened the score late in the third but
Mya Bolinda (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) helped W&J respond. Bolinda, a freshman from North Hills, scored off a pass from
Sofia Jenkins (Hughesville, Md./The Calverton School) to give W&J the 12-11 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Mount Union opened the final quarter of regulation with back-to-back goals to take its first lead at 13-12. However, W&J proved resilient, as the visitors countered every Mount Union score down the stretch. Trailing by a 15-14 score with six-plus minutes to play, W&J locked in defensively and fought back to earn the victory. It was
Amanda Effland (Frederick, Md./Frederick) who found Bogats for the equalizer. Bogats, in her first collegiate season, found the back of the net with a nifty shot with just 1:47 to play.
Labovitz then gained possession on the ensuing draw and head coach
Alison Valerio called timeout to allow W&J to set up its chance at scoring the potential game-winning goal. Labovitz did just that with 52 seconds to play. Labovitz then followed with another draw control that allowed the Presidents to run off a large portion of the remaining clock. Mount Union did force a turnover and took the ball the other way. However, the Purple Raiders were denied a shot at forcing overtime when
Kaitlyn Brown (Charlotte Hall, Md./La Plata) made a save with just before the buzzer.
Labovitz was once again a terror in the midfield. She finished with six points (5 goals, 1 assists), a season-high 11 draw controls, five ground balls and four caused turnovers. Uhler posted a season-best four goals while Bogats added three. Effland tallied five points (2 goals, 3 assists) and three draw controls.
Brown finished with 11 saves for the victory. Nine of Brown's saves came in the second half.
W&J returns to Presidents' Athletic Conference competition at Chatham University on Wednesday, April 12. Start time is scheduled for 7 p.m.
