COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's lacrosse team kept things tight against a red-hot Swarthmore outfit, but the visitors shook off several pushes by the Bears to grab a 15-11 Centennial Conference victory on Saturday afternoon.
Senior Emily DiGiorgio led the way with four goals for the Bears (1-8, 0-2), who trailed only by a 5-4 count before Swarthmore went on to score three unanswered goals to close out the first half and never saw its lead dip below four the rest of the way.
Mackenzie Frost had three goals and three assists for the Garnet (8-1, 1-1) who dropped a 13-8 decision to then-No. 2 Swarthmore last week for their first league loss. Swarthmore had four players score three goals, with Julia Ostrowski, Kathryn Restrepo, and Elizabeth Wainwright joining Frost.
Seniors Bridget Sherry and Kaci McNeave joined junior Haley O'Malley with a pair of markers for the hosts.
The two sides traded goals through the first half of the opening stanza, DiGiorgio's unassisted tally making it 2-2 at the 14:59 mark. The Garnet ripped off three in a row before DiGiorgio potted another in front of a free-position conversion by McNeave to cut the lead to 5-4 with 5:35 left in the half.
Swarthmore scored a pair of goals just 36 seconds apart and tacked on another by Tess Wild in transition with 3.4 seconds on the clock to go into halftime with an 8-4 edge.
The Garnet netted three of the first four goals in the second stanza and managed to keep Ursinus at arm's length until the final buzzer. Sherry and O'Malley each scored two goals in the second half for the Bears.
Senior Kaitlyn France had a nice day in the cage for the Bears, stopping 13 shots to keep the Garnet at bay.
Sherry collected six draw controls for Ursinus, which was outgained in that category by a margin of 18-10. The senior also scooped up four ground balls and caused two turnovers, tied with sophomore Katherine Eckhoff and one off senior Emily Blaszkow for the team lead.
Betsy Cohen made 10 saves for the visitors, who owned a 32-25 edge in shots.
The Bears head to Chestertown for a matchup with Washington College on Wednesday, April 3.