WASHINGTON, D.C. – It was a tale of two halves on Wednesday afternoon when the Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team met Catholic in a non-conference matchup in our nation's capital. Fortunately for the No. 9 Diplomats, their opening half was stronger than the Cardinals' close as F&M came away with an 11-10 win on the road. Catholic came into the game receiving votes in the latest IWLCA Top 25 poll.

The Diplomats were up 6-0 early and did not allow the Cardinals to score until the 5:37 mark of the second quarter during a dominant defensive showing. Franklin & Marshall's lead grew to as much as 9-2 early in the third quarter before Catholic scored eight of the final 10 goals during the 11-10 thriller.

Franklin & Marshall took seven shots during the first 15 minutes and scored on five of those attempts to seize momentum early. Lydia Cassilly opened the scoring just under three minutes into regulation before goals just 12 seconds apart from Belle Dintino and Gillian Brennan made it a 3-0 game. The scored reached 5-0 in F&M's favor with Catholic not recording a save during the opening half as Maddy Birch converted a free-position attempt before Cassilly tallied her second of the afternoon just three seconds before the first quarter buzzer.

Things continued to trend in the Diplomats' favor even during the second quarter as Lauren Pittman was able to score a goal despite the Diplomats serving a penalty. Kate McLam's free-position goal came with just 44 seconds to play in the opening half and the visitors would take a 7-2 lead into the locker room. F&M also started strong in the third quarter as Sydney Lowe tallied just 39 seconds into the second half before Brennan later converted a free-position attempt. Those two strikes pushed F&M's lead to 9-2 as Alyssa Moran stopped four of Catholic's first six shots on goal.

Franklin & Marshall finished the game with a 30-29 advantage in shots, but the Catholic attack became very precise in its attempts during the second half - scoring eight times on 11 shots on goal. The Cardinals closed the gap to 11-6 at the end of the third with goals from Lane Lambeth and Brennan breaking up those spurts. Brennan's goal with 14 seconds to go in the third quarter gave the F&M junior a hat trick.

Free-position goals worked in Catholic's favor during the final 15 minutes as the Cardinals had the deficit down to just two goals, 11-9, with 9:34 still remaining in regulation. Nevertheless, the F&M defense regrouped and allowed just one goal the rest of the afternoon – which came with 15 seconds to play in regulation – helping the Diplomats prevail by an 11-10 score.

The final statistics proved every bit as close as the final score, with both teams collecting 25 ground balls. Catholic had a slight 13-12 edge in draw controls, with Madison Bray's three DCs leading F&M. Sarah Bowyer and Dintino added two draw controls during the win. Mary Pat McKenna had a huge game on defense with a career-high five caused turnovers, tying for the eighth-highest single game total in school history. Bray and Dintino both contributed three more forced turnovers to the winning effort.

Women's lacrosse will now turn its attention to this weekend where it plays back-to-back games to close a busy week of action. The Diplomats resume Centennial Conference play on Saturday during a 3 p.m. opening draw at Swarthmore. F&M returns home to Shadek Stadium Sunday for a 1 p.m. start against No. 6 Salisbury in the team's final non-conference matchup of the regular season.