LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team made it three straight Centennial Conference Championships with a 12-7 win versus the rival Bullets on Saturday. The Diplomats' back-to-back CC titles mark just the second time in program history the team has won three consecutive Centennial titles, with the first being a span of five straight times lifting the trophy from 2007 through 2011.
The team's 11th Centennial Conference Championship in program history now makes it four of the past five years that F&M has captured the conference title. This year's championship celebration was additionally special because it marked the first time since the 2011 season that F&M won the regular season title and then got to hoist the trophy on its home field.
It was a dominant day defensively for the Diplomats who were led by Centennial Conference Tournament MVP Sara DiGiovanni as she stopped 11 of the 18 shots on goal that she faced. That included holding Gettysburg scoreless on its five free-position shot attempts. Lydia Cassily led the team in scoring for the second consecutive postseason game with her hat trick, while Lane Lambeth, Alexandra Proefrock, and Lauren Pittman each scored twice.
Franklin & Marshall outscored the Bullets during three of the four quarters and never trailed after Lambeth's second goal of the game tied the score at two-all during the first quarter. Cassilly's 50th goal of the season gave F&M its first lead of the afternoon, while her 51st of the season put her side up 4-3 with 10:52 in the second quarter as the hosts would lead the rest of the way.
Cassilly's second goal of the day started a 4-0 run that extended into the third quarter. The Bullets scored back-to-back goals just once all afternoon, making the score 7-5 with 3:32 to play in the third quarter, but Proefrock and Pittman recorded their second goals of the afternoon to prevent the game from inching any tighter Rose Dunne, Annie Marshall, and Devyn Crone all found the back of the cage during the fourth quarter as the Diplomats had seven different goals scorers in the championship win.
Lucy Rogers and Izzy Deubner bolstered the defensive efforts with three and two caused turnovers, respectively, as they were among six Diplomats who forced a turnover as the Bullets were just 19-of-25 on their clearing attempts and turned the ball over 22 times. Lauren Pittman led the team with six draw controls and was one of six F&M players with multiple GBs. Cassilly and Lambeth led those efforts with three ground balls each.
With today's victory, the Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team earned the Centennial Conference's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament which begins next weekend. The Diplomats will be making their 29th appearance all-time in the national tournament. The team has made back-to-back Final Four appearances during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. F&M will find out its path to an NCAA title with the NCAA selection show which will be streamed this Monday at 10:30 a.m. on NCAA.com.
