LANCASTER, Pa. – The No. 4 Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team opened its season with a 16-12 victory against No. 6 Washington and Lee on Sunday afternoon inside Shadek Stadium. The win was not only a nationally-ranked victory, but it gave head coach Renee Dowd a win in her F&M coaching debut. The Diplomats had three different runs that reached at least 3-0 to pace the win.

All three of the Diplomats' 60-plus goal scorers from a season ago finished the 2025 season opener with hat tricks. Lydia Cassilly headlined those efforts with six goals, while Lane Lambeth and Lauren Pittman finished with four and three goals, respectively. Pittman added two assists to finish with five points while first-year Svia Russman-Araya led F&M with four helpers on the afternoon.

The visiting Generals jumped out to a 4-2 lead during a high-scoring first quarter, but the Diplomats would have the final say during those opening 15 minutes as they started a 4-0 run with three consecutive goals to close the opening period. Lambeth started that run before a pair of goals from Pittman made it a 5-4 F&M lead after 15 minutes. Pittman also scored the first goal of the year to put her side up 1-0 and assisted on Julia Carbon's goal at the 7:48 mark.

First-year Alexandra Proefrock scored her first career goal just 41 seconds into the second quarter to cap the 4-0 run. Nevertheless, the Diplomats' momentum continued by scoring five of the next six goals even after W&L had stopped that initial run. Cassilly and Lambeth both contributed multiple goals to that stretch which saw the hosts up 9-6 at the break and leading 11-6 midway through the third quarter.

The 11-6 margin marked F&M's largest lead of the afternoon as the Generals scored the next three goals to make the score 11-9 with 4:35 to play in the third period. The Diplomats let the score get no closer than that in the remaining time as Cassilly and Pittman each scored within a 62 second period to make the score 13-10 heading into the fourth quarter. The final period started with Devyn Crone tallying her first goal of the season before the final 3-0 run was capped with two more goals from Cassilly to set the score at 16-10 with 2:18 to play before the visitors scored twice in the final 90 seconds.

Franklin & Marshall closed the game with a 31-29 advantage in shots as both team's goalies made seven saves on the afternoon. Sara DiGiovanni got the start in goal and made those stops to earn the victory. The Diplomats dominated the restarts as they held a 22-10 advantage in draw controls. Just one year after tying the school's single-season record, Pittman came away with 10 draw controls during Sunday's win while also scoring the only free-position goal of the afternoon with those limited opportunities. Megan Bizub led F&M with three caused turnovers, while Izzy Deubner added a pair of caused turnovers in addition to her three ground balls.

With the first win of the year under its belt, women's lacrosse will now have just under two weeks before returning to action at home against York (Pa.) on Saturday, March 1. Opening draw in that contest is set for 12 p.m. noon and will be the second of three consecutive home games to start the 2025 season.