BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's lacrosse team honored its seven seniors before the match and then went out and posted a 19-9 victory over visiting Susquehanna University in Landmark Conference action on John Makuvek Field Saturday afternoon.
The Greyhounds, now 7-4 overall and 2-1 in Landmark Conference contests, had five different players scored goals led by senior attack Jillian Picciuto, who had six goals and six assists for her third career 12-point game. Junior attack Liz Bill netted five goals to go with one assist, and her first goal gave Bill 200 career points as she joined Picciuto as the only two players in program history to reach 200 career points. Picciuto has a school record 342 points.
Freshman midfielder Lindsey Strohl had three goals and an assist while senior attack Dalia Aguilar contributed three goals. Sophomore midfielder Meaghan McMullan added a pair of goals and an assist while senior attack Kyleigh Miller had one assist.
Senior goalie Kelley Gavin registered four saves in 43 minutes of action while sophomore goalie Courtney Heist had six saves in 17 minutes in goal. Bill set a school record with 16 draw controls in the contest to go with a pair of ground balls while Picciuto had three caused turnovers, three ground balls and a pair of draw controls. Strohl added six draw controls and two caused turnovers while McMullan had four ground balls and Miller had two ground balls. Senior defender Jacqueline LaCava had a pair of caused turnovers while senior defender Melissa Webber and sophomore defender Olivia Clearie both scooped up three ground balls. Clearie also caused two turnovers. Senior Jessica Pisano had a pair of shots in her first start of the season after battling injuries.
The Greyhounds took a school record 51 shots in the match and held a 26-25 edge in ground balls and a 24-6 advantage in draw controls while going 19-for-24 on clears.
Bill began the scoring with her milestone point just over four minutes into action to begin a run of six Moravian goals to start the contest. After the River Hawks scored twice, the Greyhounds netted four of the last six goals of the half with Aguilar's tally in the final minute of the period sending the Blue and Grey to the intermission with a 10-4 advantage.
Picciuto started the second half with a pair of goals before the squads traded the next six goals. Susquehanna scored its final goal with 14 minutes remaining to make it a 15-9 match but two goals each from Bill and Strohl pushed the lead to 10.
The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Wednesday, April 10 in a Landmark Conference match at Elizabethtown College beginning at 4:00 p.m.
