CHESTERTOWN, Md. – The sixth-ranked Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team scored the first six goals and never looked back during a 17-8 victory at Washington College on Saturday. With the win, the Diplomats (13-2, 6-0 CC) took another step towards locking up the No. 1 seed for the Centennial Conference Tournament.
Lauren Pittman led the attack with five goals and two assists for a total of seven points. Lydia Cassilly also recorded a hat trick while totaling six points in the contest. Lane Lambeth, Alexandra Proefrock, and Megan Bizub all added two goals, with Lambeth dishing out two helpers for a total of four points.
Pittman got her huge offensive day going early with two goals during the opening three minutes. The Diplomats continued to double up on their goal scorers as Proefrock and Cassilly both registered back-to-back goals to put F&M out to its aforementioned 6-0 lead less than eight minutes into the contest.
Even when the Shorewomen stopped that early run with their first goal, the Diplomats responded with three more goals in succession, with goals from Bizub sandwiched around Rose Dunne's tally. Trailing 9-1, Washington College got the game back to within a four goal difference, 9-5, following their largest run of the afternoon.
That comeback bid was ultimately short-lived as F&M scored three more in a row to take a 12-5 lead as part of stretch that saw the Diplomats score eight of the game's final 11 goals. Adde Hollander and Annie Marshall scored their first goals of the day during the strong close to the game, while Pittman scored two goals just 13 seconds apart during the third quarter before adding her fifth and final score with 1:56 to play in regulation.
Franklin & Marshall nearly doubled up the Shorewomen with a 40-23 advantage in shots after the Diplomats won 21 of the 29 draws. Julia Carbon had a huge day on the restart as she won 10 draw controls to just miss a top-10 single game performance in program history. Pittman added seven draw controls of her own to add to her offensive exploits. Sara DiGiovanni stopped 10 of the 18 shots on goal that she faced in addition to collecting a team-best three ground balls. Sophia Giebel led five different players who caused a turnover with a team-best three CTs during the victory.
Women's lacrosse wraps up the regular season with a pair of home contests this coming week. Up first will be a 7 p.m. matchup under the lights of Shadek Stadium on Wednesday, April 23 versus Ursinus. A win in that game would officially lock up the No. 1 seed for the Diplomats in the conference tournament.
