Baltimore, MD – Holding a 7-5 lead with 12:21 remaining in the first half of Wednesday's Colonial States Athletic Conference women's lacrosse game, Notre Dame of Maryland scored the final 11 goals of the game to defeat Keystone College 18-5. The Gators level their record at 2-2 on the season and improve to 1-2 in conference play while keeping the Giants winless in three contests this spring (0-3 CSAC).
Keystone's
Emily Hawkins (Glenside, PA/Cheltenham) scored a pair of goals sandwiched around a tally for the hosts to give the visitors a 2-1 edge 4:18 into the contest before the Gators scored back-to-back goals to take a 3-2 lead. Hawkins knotted the score back up at the 19:21 mark, but Notre Dame countered with the next three goals of the game to claim a 6-3 lead with 18:52 showing on the first half clock.
Nina Hodanich (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) scored off a Hawkins' assist to bring Keystone back within two goals before another goal for Notre Dame gave the hosts a 7-4 lead.
Bianca Dolac (Buffalo, NY/West Seneca East) then found twine after taking a pass from
AAliya Hayes (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) to make it a 7-5 game with 12:21 left in the first half, but the Gators scored the final five goals of the period to take a 12-5 lead into halftime.
Notre Dame scored three goals in the opening ten minutes of the second half to build a 10-goal cushion and would add three more tallies to close out the scoring.
Sawyer Butto led all players with five goals while Hannah Frederick scored four goals to account for half of Notre Dame's goals. Michaela Olson added three tallies while Brittany Peddicord and Carrie Naylor contributed two goals and one assists apiece for the Gators, who held a 27-16 advantage in shots for the game while claiming a 25-18 edge in groundballs for the day.
De'ja Martin made six saves in goal for the hosts to earn the victory.
Hawkins paced Keystone with three goals and one assist while leading all players with four caused turnovers and tying for a game-high with six groundballs. Dolac led all players with seven draw controls to go along with five groundballs and a pair of caused turnovers while Hodanich added four draw controls and three groundballs for the Giants, who held a 13-12 edge in draw controls on the day.
Domonique Swann (Waldorf, MD/Westlake) made eight saves in net while making her first start in goal on the season for the Giants.
Keystone will host Marywood University on Saturday afternoon in a CSAC contest scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on the Giants' turf field in La Plume.
