No. 1 Salisbury ends No. 3 Franklin and Marshall's 35-game home winning streak
LANCASTER, Pa. - The top-ranked Salisbury University women's lacrosse team snapped No. 3 Franklin & Marshall College's 35-game home winning streak on Sunday afternoon with a 10-9 victory before a crowd of 1,175 at the North Campus Athletic Field.
SU freshman Sarah Clemmens netted the game-winner with 8:19 left in the second half on a free position goal. Clemmens' goal gave SU its first lead in the second half after the Sea Gulls led for over 20 minutes in the first half and held a 7-6 lead at the half.
This is the second straight win for the Sea Gulls (10-1) over the Diplomats (8-1) as SU holds a 6-2 series lead. The loss is the first at home for F&M since an 11-8 setback against Gettysburg College on May 1, 2005. Salisbury had its own lengthy home winning streak halted at 32 games with a 15-14 loss to No. 8 Colby last Tuesday.
The game flowed in waves as each team went on different runs throughout the contest. F&M scored the game's first two goals in less than four minutes before Salisbury went on a 7-1 run. The Diplomats responded with five straight to take an 8-7 lead early in the second half. That was the first lead for the Diplomats in nearly 30 minutes since SU tied the game at 2-2 on junior attacker Beth Rhodey's second of three goals in the game.
SU netted three of the final four goals to clinch the win. Senior midfielder Robyn Bishop scored a free position goal with 19:38 left in regulation to knot the game at eight apiece. The Diplomats quickly answered, 41 seconds later, as Lauren Ehrhardt scored off an assist from Shannon Summers (one goal, two assists) to regain the one-goal advantage. Minutes later SU evened the score once more as senior midfielder Ashleigh Gender (two goals) beat Diplomat goalie Lidia Sanza (six saves) off an assist from junior attacker Kim Cudmore (one goal, two assists).
Franklin & Marshall scored the game's first goal 42 seconds in on a goal by Meredith Lussier (four goals) off a feed from Blake Hargest. The Diplomats scored minutes later as Summer found Jen Pritchard (two goals) who fired a shot past SU goalie Sonja Stuart (11 saves). In addition to the multiple goals scored by Rhodey in the first half senior midfielder Courtney Sorenson had two goals during the 7-1 SU run.
The game was fairly even in the statistical categories as both teams won 11 draw controls, F&M outshot SU 28-20 and the Diplomats had two more ground balls (13) than the Sea Gulls.
Salisbury head back to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, March 31, to face Ursinus College in a non-conference game at 5 p.m.
