La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College scored four of the final five goals to earn a hard-fought, 12-9 victory over visiting Notre Dame of Maryland University in Colonial States Athletic Conference women's lacrosse action on Monday afternoon.  The Giants improve to 3-5 on the season including a 2-4 mark in conference action while the Gators slide to 2-7 overall and 1-4 in the CSAC.     
 
Emily Hawkins (Glenside, PA/Cheltenham) led all players with seven points on five goals and two assists while Aileen Yaeger (Medford, NY/Patchogue-Medford) netted five goals to go along with one helper for the Giants, who got 13 saves from Katelyn Coon (Selden, NY/St. John the Baptist ) in the win.
 
Tied 1-1 with 16:53 remaining in the first half on Monday, Alex Smith (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) and Hannah Zuchowski (Wellsboro, PA/Wellsboro Area) scored goals separated by just 28 seconds to give Keystone a 3-1 lead.  Notre Dame countered with the game's next three goals to briefly take a one-goal edge, but Yaeger leveled the contest after taking a feed from Hawkins with 9:36 showing on the clock.  The Gators went ahead with just under seven minutes remaining in the first half, but Yaeger answered just 22 seconds later to send the game into halftime deadlocked at five-apiece.
 
Notre Dame claimed a 7-6 edge just over two minutes into the second half before back-to-back goals from Yaeger gave Keystone an 8-7 lead at the 25:21 mark.  The visitors drew level four minutes later, but Hawkins scored a pair of goals with the Giants down a player to give the hosts a 10-8 lead midway through the period.
 
Notre Dame got a goal back with 13:46 left in regulation, but Keystone clamped down defensively from their and the Giants iced the win with goals from Yaeger and Hawkins in the final 2:34 of the contest.
 
Kayla Bain (Lancaster, PA/J.P. McCaskey) led all players with eight groundballs and three caused turnovers in the game while Yaeger scooped up five groundballs.  Hawkins collected a pair of caused turnovers and a game-best five draw controls, Yaeger had four draw controls, and Shatia Silas (Belleville, NJ/Belleville) corralled three draws on the afternoon.
 
Megan Morales scored four goals while Khamaree Owens netted three tallies for Notre Dame, who got 12 saves in net from Deja Martin.
 
Keystone held a 31-28 edge in shots for the game while winning the fight for groundballs by a 26-19 margin.  The Giants also held a narrow, 13-10 advantage in draw controls on the day.
 
Keystone will return to the field on Saturday with a key CSAC contest against Gwynedd Mercy University that is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. in La Plume.