Women's Lax Gives Way to No. 1 Gettysburg

Women's Lax Gives Way to No. 1 Gettysburg

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Kaitlyn France and the Ursinus College women's lacrosse team did all it could to hang with top-ranked and defending national champion Gettysburg, but the Bullets shook off a bit of a slow start and rolled to a 20-3 victory in the Centennial Conference opener on Saturday.

France matched her career high with 13 saves, eight of them coming in the first half as the junior goalkeeper's heroics kept prolific Gettysburg off the board for almost nine minutes to open the game. Eventually, the Bullets' fast-break attack proved too much for the Bears to handle.

France had four saves in the first eight minutes and change, holding the Orange and Blue scoreless until Liza Barr broke the deadlock at the 21:05 mark. Katie Willis and Kerry McKeever each scored a pair over the next 13 minutes to give Gettysburg a 6-0 lead.

Junior Abby Goldstein broke up the shutout with 7:15 to play in the first half, cutting through the circle and firing a pass from senior Franny Liberatoscioli top shelf and into the back of the cage. Just over two minutes later, she converted a free-position opportunity to make it 6-2.

The Bullets answered with two goals in the final 1:06 of the half, including one with 8.9 seconds on the clock, to take an 8-2 lead into the break. Gettysburg scored 23 seconds into the second stanza and kept piling on from there, ultimately stretching its run of unanswered scores to ten before settling on a 20-3 final.

Katie Landry finished with a goal and six assists for the Bullets, who got four goals from Liza Barr and three more from McKeever. Four others scored two goals for Gettysburg, which outshot Ursinus 39-15 and went a perfect 19-for-19 on clears. Steph Colson racked up 11 draw controls.

Liberatoscioli matched freshman Hannah Reape with a team-high four draws in addition to her assist, and junior Emily DiGiorgio netted her team-leading 22nd goal of the season.

Senior Alycia Hildebrand led all players with six ground balls, with junior Emily Blaszkow and freshman Katherine Eckhoff providing a pair of caused turnovers each in front of France. Junior Kaci McNeave registered four ground balls, one more than Blaszkow.

The toughest part of its schedule now over, Ursinus heads to Swarthmore for a CC tilt on Saturday, March 31.