La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College gave visiting Colonial States Athletic Conference leader Gwynedd Mercy University all it could handle on Saturday afternoon, but the Griffins rallied for a 2-1 win over the Giants to remain unbeaten in conference play this fall.  Gwynedd Mercy improves to 11-5 overall and 6-0 in the CSAC while Keystone slides to 6-9 on the year and 3-3 in league contests. 
 
Keystone is currently tied with Immaculata University for the fourth and final playoff spot with one game remaining.  The Giants take on Marywood University on Thursday while the Mighty Macs playing Cabrini University. 
 
At halftime of Saturday's contest, Keystone honored the team's two seniors, Alissa Nugent (Chestertown, Md./Kent County) and Breanna Paulson (Mountain Top, Pa./Crestwood).  
Gwynedd Mercy applied the early pressure on Saturday, with Emily Hawkins (Glenside, PA/Cheltenham) making four saves and April Llewellyn (Plains, Pa./Coughlin) adding her fourth defensive save of the season to keep the scoreless.  Keystone took advantage of its first true opportunity in the 19^th minute of play to take a 1-0 lead.  The Giants earned a penalty corner and worked the ball around to Paulson, who set up Ayana Crawford (Washington, D.C./Elizabeth Seton) for a one-time shot that found the back of the cage for the freshman's second goal of the season.
 
The Griffins finally solved the Giants with 5:34 remaining in the first half when Melissa Russo scored from close range after taking a feed from Abigail Gabriel.
 
The two teams went into halftime knotted a 1-1 with Gwynedd Mercy holding a 13-1 advantage in shots.
 
After pressuring Keystone's backline throughout the second half, the Griffins found the eventual game-winning goal in the 58^th minute when Kaitlyn Lutz drove home a shot from the right side of the cage with Erika Cimino assisting on the tally.
 
The Giants had a good chance at finding the equalizer with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation when Kayla Bain (Lancaster, Pa./J.P. McCaskey) got behind Gwynedd Mercy's defense, but her shot went wide as the Griffins hung on for the win.
 
Samantha Soscia picked up the win in net for the visitors without making a save while Hawkins made a career-high 20 saves for Keystone.
 
Gwynedd Mercy finished the afternoon with a 29-3 advantage in shots and an 11-3 lead in penalty corners.
 
Keystone will make the short trip to Scranton on Thursday to take on Marywood in the all-important regular season finale.  Game time between the Giants and Pacers is set for 4:00 p.m. on Marywood's turf field.
 
Neumann University lurks one-game behind Keystone and Immaculata at 2-4 and plays Notre Dame of Maryland University in their season finale.  A win over the Pacers on Thursday would send the Giants to the playoffs while Keystone also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with Immaculata should both teams lose on Thursday.  The Giants also currently hold the edge in the overall goal-against tie-breaker should a three-way tie for fourth occur.