LANCASTER, Pa. – No. 1 Franklin & Marshall suffered a hearting-breaking 8-7 loss to No. 10 Salisbury in women's lacrosse action Wednesday evening at Tylus Field. The Diplomats picked up their first loss of the year and dropped to 7-1 while the Sea Gulls improved to 6-2.

The game was tightly contested throughout the 60 minutes of action as neither led by more than two scores. F&M jumped out to an early two goal lead a little under five minutes into the game when Grace Saliba found Gabby Frank at 28:13 for the first score and Saliba finished off a pass from Brittney Jorgenson a few minutes later to make it 2-0. Salisbury answered with two straight a little over two minutes and tied the game at 22:31.

F&M went back on top a minute later when Paige Moriarty buried a pass from Jorgenson before the Sea Gulls scored two and took a 4-3 edge at 8:55. The Diplomats countered with two goals of their own and took a 5-4 lead into the break. Casey Madden netted the first score off a pass from Saliba and Emily Everdell found the top right of the cage with just five ticks on the clock for the second score.

Kara O'Rourke tied the game 34 seconds into the second half at 5-5 and Everdell scored on a free position two minutes later to put the Diplomats back out front, 6-5, at 26:24. O'Rourke evened the game again at the 22-minute mark and Everdell responded at 14:47 with an unassisted tally to give F&M a 7-6 advantage.

O'Rourke tied the game five minutes later and found Megan Wallenhorst for the eventual game-winner at 2:59. F&M won the ensuing draw and fired off two shots, but Gianna Falcone stopped the second shot at 1:22 and turned the ball 12 seconds later, giving F&M another chance. Anastasia Mergner was awarded a free-position shot for the Diplomats with just 34 ticks left, but Falcone came up with another big save and Salisbury was able to run out the clock.

Emily Everdell finished with three scores to lead the Diplomats while Gabby Frank, Paige Moriarty and Casey Madden all scored a goal. Brittney Jorgenson and Grace Saliba both dished out two assists for F&M.

Megan Kelly caused two turnovers and collected two draws while Vanessa Budd along with Mergner finished with three ground balls.

Kara O'Rourke and Megan Wallenhorst both finished with three scores and an assist and Kate Haker struck twice for Salisbury.

Danielle Harrington took the loss with four saves and dropped to 3-1 and Falcone improved to 3-0 with six saves.

F&M outshot Salisbury 20-13, held a 14-10 edge in ground balls and went 9-for-9 in clear attempts.

The Diplomats return to action on Saturday when F&M travels to Washington for 1:00 p.m. game.