COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's lacrosse team braved a late spring blizzard and used a first-half avalanche to roll to a 15-2 Centennial Conference rout of Bryn Mawr on Saturday morning.
Freshman Kaci McNeave equaled her career high with four goals – three in the first ten minutes – as Ursinus (6-5, 2-2) surrendered an early opening salvo to the Owls (4-6, 0-5) but recovered to rattle off 14 unanswered markers and cruised from there. Junior Amy Kohout delivered a goal and three assists, senior Brynn Dietzel registered her first goal of the season, and junior Danielle Kenny collected her first assist of the year for the Bears, who snapped a two-game skid and improved to 23-0 all-time against Bryn Mawr.
With a steady snow blanketing Patterson Field from the opening draw, the Owls struck first on Erica Dwyer's unassisted goal just over two minutes in. Spurred by the first blow, Ursinus equalized just 22 seconds later on the stick of Taylor DeBernardi, igniting a stretch of 14 straight goals over the next 17 minutes and change.
Freshman Courtney Cortese gave the Bears the lead for good at 26:46, and none of the home side's next nine goals were separated by more than 90 seconds. McNeave sandwiched a pair around one from sophomore Franny Liberatoscioli before Kohout got in on the fun, converting a free-position shot and setting up Cortese's unassisted delivery.
Freshman Abby Goldstein followed with back-to-back goals, the first on a beautiful sequence of spin moves, and McNeave made it 10-1 just 12 seconds after Goldstein's second. Junior Lindsey Grabell brought about the running clock at the 18:10 mark of the half, and senior captain Jessica Hill chipped in her third goal of the season about five minutes later, stripping a Bryn Mawr player before scooping up the ground ball and taking it all the way in on net.
Freshman Emily DiGiorgio got on the board on a feed from Kohout, and Kenny fed Dietzel from behind the net to close the first-half scoring at 7:53.
Bryn Mawr got a goal from Hannah Broderick with 9:50 remaining, and McNeave's fourth and final marker ended the scoring with 6:51 to play.
The Bears held a 21-4 advantage in shots and controlled 16 draws to the Owls' three, with junior Lisa Grous (five), freshman Bridget Sherry (five), and Cortese (four) doing most of the damage. Grous joined Hill and McNeave with two caused turnovers apiece, and McNeave also collected three ground balls.
Liberatoscioli finished with a goal and an assist to complement two ground balls, a draw, and a caused turnover.
Senior Margaret Philbin faced only two shots and did not record a save while playing the first half; freshman Kaitlyn France came on for the second stanza and made one save.
Katie Alpert recorded four saves for the Owls.
The Bears have a week to prepare for a battle with sixth-ranked Gettysburg, which comes to Collegeville for a CC tilt on Saturday, April 16.
