GETTYSBURG, Pa. – No. 4 Franklin & Marshall defeated No. 5 Gettysburg 16-11 in Centennial Conference (CC) women's lacrosse action on Wednesday evening.  The win secures the top seed in the CC Playoffs next week for F&M as the Diplomats improved to 16-1, 8-0 CC, while the Bullets dropped to 13-2, 7-1 CC. 

F&M led wire-to-wire and jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage. The Diplomats wasted little time getting on the board when Gabby Frank found Claire Jackson just 58 seconds into the game. Frank connected with Grace Saliba a little over three minutes later and Anastasia Mergner fed Maddie Hughes for the early 3-0 lead. Mergner scored unassisted at 22:47, but the Bullets answered with two straight to a make it 4-2 at 19:19.

The Diplomats countered with a 6-0 run to take a 10-2 lead with a little over five minutes remaining in the contest. Saliba started the run on a free position goal and Mergner buried a pass from Hughes before Paige Moriarty, Katie Groenke and Jackson all netted goals. Jackson fed Natalie Delinsky for the final score of the run and Bullets tack on a point to make it 10-3 at the break.

Saliba kicked off a 3-0 spurt to start the second with an early score before Moriarty netted back-to-back scores for a 13-3 F&M run. Gettysburg responded with three straight and Groenke found Moriarty at 12:32 to make it 14-6. The Bullets came within seven, 14-7, at 9:56 before Saliba buried a pass from Jackson at 6:25. Gettysburg went on another 3-0 run to come within five, 15-10, and Frank answered almost a minute later to make it 16-10 before the Bullets put the final point on the board with 18 ticks on the clock.

Saliba paced the offense with four goals and an assist and Moriarty ended with four goals. Jackson had two goals with three helpers, Mergner tallied twice with one assist while Frank, Delinsky, Groenke and Hughes all scored once for the Diplomats.

Jackson added two turnovers and Stephanie Speese finished with a team-high three ground balls. Mergner came away with seven draws for the Diplomats.

Danielle Harrington improved to 13-0 with eight saves and Shannon Keeler took the loss with just two stops.

F&M outshot Gettysburg 27-22, held an 18-11 advantage in draws and went 14-for-16 in clear attempts.

The Diplomats wrap up the regular season on Saturday when F&M hosts Dickinson at 12:00 p.m.