CHESTERTOWN, Md. – For the second straight time this week, the No. 1 Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team found itself in a battle at the half before unleashing a fury of goals in the second half, highlighted by an 8-0 run. On Saturday, the top-ranked Diplomats (4-0, 3-0 CC) outscored host Washington College (3-3, 2-2 CC) 11-3 over the final 30 minutes during an eventual 15-6 Centennial Conference victory.

Maddy Birch led the Diplomats' attack with three goals and two assists while Marissa McGarrey scored three goals to go along with one assist. Tabitha Rodriguez made it a trio of hat tricks for F&M while Megan Jackson and Ally Marino both tallied twice in the victory. Emily Kitchin stopped 11 of the 17 shots on goal she faced to pick up the win in goal.

F&M never trailed throughout the entire contest, but just could not seem to break free from the Shorewomen early. The Diplomats scored the game's first two goals with Kate McLam and Jackson tallying just over three minutes apart. WAC tied the game at two before a quick answer from McGarrey. The defenses took charge for the remainder of the half but not before Marino scored on a free-position goal.

The Shorewomen continued to stick around and tied the game at four with the final goal of the opening half before a free-position goal just 17 seconds into the second half. Nevertheless, it was not long before F&M's 8-0 run helped them finally take control of the contest.

Rodriguez got that run started with 26:48 left in regulation. Just over 12 minutes later, the Diplomats were leading 12-4 with the second half more than halfway gone. Rodriguez scored all three of her goals during that run while Birch's entire point production also came during this stretch. Sarah Bowyer and Jackson additionally rattled the cage before the Shorewomen broke that extended stretch.

McGarrey scored two more goals over the final eight minutes while Marino found her second goal of the afternoon in F&M's 15-6 victory. Despite the final differential on the scoreboard, Franklin & Marshall finished with just a 22-19 edge in shots during the second half. Nevertheless, 10 second half saves from Kitchin held the Shorewomen mostly at bay.

Anya Chopoorian caused a game-high four turnovers as the Diplomats held the hosts to just 14-of-21 on their clearing attempts. Erin Phillips and Emma Arronson also had a pair of caused turnovers in the victory as the Diplomats finished with 16 caused turnovers in total. F&M also won the ground ball battle with Arronson and Chopoorian finishing at five and three, respectively.

Another busy week awaits the Diplomats as they make two more road trips. The team recently announced that the rescheduled contest with Ursinus will now take place on Wednesday, April 21 at 4 p.m. Franklin & Marshall will also travel to Dickinson for the second time next Saturday for the official Centennial Conference contest between those two squads.