Box Score

LEXINGTON, Va. – #3 Franklin & Marshall watched its four goal halftime lead vanish, but the Lacrosse Magazine preseason Player of the Year, Jen Pritchard, rallied the troops with a late hat trick, lifting the Diplomats to an 11-9 win at  #7 Washington & Lee.

The Diplomats (2-0) carried a 7-3 lead into the break, but the Generals (3-1) dominated the draws and threw a balanced attack at F&M for 10 minutes of the second half to pull ahead. The Generals marched on a 6-1 run with six different players scoring.

The first four W&L goals knotted it at 7-7, with 16:13 left in regulation. Pritchard then cashed in on a Shannon Summers' pass to restore the Diplomats' lead 94 seconds later.

W&L responded quickly with Emmy Matthews and Wilton Megargel twitching twine 39 seconds apart at 13:02 and 12:23, respectively, giving the Generals their first lead since the 20:35 mark of the first half.

Then Pritchard intervened.

The Diplomats senior tied things up at 9-9 with an unassisted goal at 9:51. Pritchard completed the hat trick with the game-winner at 3:06, again off of a feed from Summers. The helper was Summers' third of the game.

“Jen (Pritchard) and Shannon (Summers) came up big-time for us today,” said F&M Head Coach, Lauren Paul '03. “The attack was composed throughout and did an outstanding job on three-minute possession down the stretch.”

That possession started when F&M won the draw following Pritchard's third, and ended when Blake Hargest dumped in an insurance tally with three ticks showing to make it the 11-9 final. The loss was W&L's first of the season.

“I am proud of the way we played today,” Paul said. “The defense looked awesome and carried us through several tough W&L possessions to keep us in the game.”

The teams traded goals in the early going with Meredith Freeman getting W&L on the board first. She finished the game with a hat trick. The Diplomats answered 40 seconds later when first-year, Lauren Ehrhardt, got F&M on the board, set up by the first of Hargest's three assists.

Ehrhardt has scored the first goal in both of F&M's games this season. She was also the answer when Katie Flippen scored the first of her pair giving the Generals a 2-1 lead. Ehrhardt's equalizer started a 6-1 F&M run on the cage going into the half. Summers netted back-to-back goals in that stretch.

Summers' five points led the Diplomats, followed by the four points registered by both Hargest and Pritchard. Flippen and Freeman each recorded four points for W&L. Two of Freeman's goals came on free position shots. W&L cashed in on half of their six free positions. The Diplomats were able to convert on just one of four.

The Diplomats outworked W&L for loose balls with F&M holding a 17-12 edge. Both teams turned the ball over 13 times while their respective keepers came up with nine stops. The Generals won 12 of the game's 22 draws.

Pritchard wrapped the day with 207 career goals, leaving her 14 short of tying the F&M career record, currently owned by F&M Hall of Famer, Lauren Petrella.  She'll get to work on running that record down on Tuesday when F&M hosts #19 Rowan. The opening draw is set for 4:30 p.m.