WASHINGTON, Pa. --
Emily Heck (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) scored twice in the fourth quarter to help the top-seeded Washington & Jefferson College women's lacrosse team fend off an upset bid by fifth-seeded Grove City College Thursday evening in the semifinal round of the 2023 Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament at Alexandre Stadium.
W&J improves to 14-3 overall. The victory extends W&J's program-record winning streak to 13 games. The 14 wins are a new single-season program record for the Presidents.
W&J, who defeated Grove City by a 20-9 margin just five days ago, played through a 60-minute battle Thursday evening to earn a spot in Saturday's PAC Championship game.
The Presidents seemed poised to take control early. The Red and Black used back-to-back scores by
Caleigh Bogats (Oakdale, Pa./Chartiers Valley) to take a two-goal lead midway through the first quarter.
Anna Kloehn (Canton, Ohio/Jackson) scored off a pass from Heck at the 2:44 mark of the first quarter, as the Presidents held a 3-0 lead after a quarter of play.
Grove City found its offense in the early stages of the second quarter. The Wolverines ripped off three-straight goals, including a pair by Madison Nazigian, which allowed the visitors to even the score at 3-3 with 7:46 to play before halftime.
Sofia Jenkins (Hughesville, Md./The Calverton School) helped W&J regain the lead less than two minutes later when she ripped a shot into the back of the net. Nazigian helped Grove City answer with a goal to knot the score at 4-4 at the 3:17 mark.
W&J regained a slight edge going into halftime when
Aisa Uhler (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) found
Mya Bolinda (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) in front of the net. Bolinda did a nice job to finish in traffic to give W&J the 5-4 lead with 58 seconds before halftime.
Grove City scored four of the first goals in the third quarter to build its first multi-goal lead of the night. Nazigian recorded her fourth goal of the night and 80th of the season when she found the back of the net at the 2:07 mark. Facing its largest deficit against a conference opponent all season, Bolinda helped W&J cut the lead in half just before the end of the third quarter. Bolinda tallied an unassisted score with just 40 seconds left in the third.
In the fourth quarter, Heck scored off a pass from Jenkins at the 10:06 mark to tie the score at 8-8. Heck gained a free position opportunity a minute later. The junior capitalized and scored with 9:06 mark.
Jenkins, Bogats and Heck all finished with three points to pace the offense.
Sarah Labovitz (Great Falls, Va./The Bullis School) finished with a team-high six ground balls.
Ella Phillips (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) had four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Kaitlyn Brown (Charlotte Hall, Md./La Plata) finished with 10 saves, which included all four shots on goal during a decisive fourth quarter.
The final statistics show an evenly matched game. W&J held slight edges in shots (28-25), shots on goals (21-18) and ground balls (27-21). Grove City edged W&J by an 11-10 margin in draw controls.
W&J will host second-seeded Allegheny College for the PAC Championship game on Saturday, May 6. Allegheny downed Franciscan by a 12-6 score in Thursday's other semifinal. First draw between the Presidents and Gators is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Alexandre Stadium.
