BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's lacrosse team earned its fourth straight victory Saturday as the Greyhounds posted a 24-13 non-conference win over visiting Eastern University at Rocco Calvo Field.
"Everything is starting to click on the attack for us," stated Head Coach Kristen Schuster. "We are able to find each other all around the field, and we are starting to execute our plays better. Our draw control has been much better over the past few games, which has been really helping us work better and get off to a good start. Defensively we have a few things we need to work on and plan on working on them for the rest of the season."
Freshman midfielder/attack Jillian Picciuto led the Greyhounds with seven goals and three assists for 10 points, tied for the second most points in a match in school history. Picciuto increased her school record total for assists in a season to 22, and her 34 goals are now tied for 10th in a single season while her 56 points are tied for the third most in a single year in Moravian's record books.
Freshman midfielder/attack Alexia Johnston contributed five goals and an assist while freshman attack Dalia Aguilar and sophomore midfielder Alexis Kersten each added had tricks as Moravian scored a season-high 24 goals. Freshman attack Jessica Pisano added two goals while freshman midfielder Eileen Rolwood had a goal and two assists.
Sophomore attack Kyleigh McGovern netted a goal and an assist while freshmen defenders Jacqueline LaCava and Melissa Webber each had a goal. Freshman attack Kyleigh Miller also had an assist for the Hounds.
Freshman goalie Kelley Gavin had five saves in 44 minutes of action while sophomore Elisabeth Pontius stopped two shots over the final 16 minutes of the match. Rolwood had 10 draw controls, which ties the single match school record, to go with three ground balls and three caused turnovers while Picciuto added five draw controls. Johnston led the squad with four ground balls while senior defender Caroline McCarthy had a team high four caused turnovers to go with three ground balls. Kersten and Webber each contributed three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Pisano gave Moravian a 1-0 lead just 72 seconds into action, and Picciuto made it 2-0 just 30 seconds later. Eastern would tie the match at 2-2 before goals from Picciuto, Johnston and Kersten put the Greyhounds up 5-2 with 22:09 left in the first half. The Eagles answered with two goals to cut the deficit to one before Moravian scored four straight goals for a 9-4 advantage. The teams traded goals throughout the remainder of the first half with Johnston scoring in the final minute of the half to send the Blue and Grey to the intermission with a 15-9 lead.
The Greyhounds netted the first five goals of the second half to put the lead into double digits, and the Hounds outscored Eastern, 9-4, over the final 30 minutes of action.
Moravian, 5-4 overall, is scheduled to return to action on Wednesday, April 6 in a non-conference match at Susquehanna University beginning at 4:00 p.m.
