ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Haverford College women's basketball team sprinted out to a 17-2 opening run and held on for a 57-55 win over host Muhlenberg on Tuesday evening, leading the Mules nearly wire-to-wire at Memorial Hall in a matchup of squads that came into the day tied for first place in the Centennial Conference. Macy Goldbach poured in 21 points on a career-best five three pointers and Samantha Wetzel added 13 as the Fords pull to 16-6 (13-4 Centennial). Muhlenberg sits at 15-7 (12-5 Centennial) after defeat.

The Fords set the tempo early, exploding for the first 17 points from the field as Muhlenberg was held without a field goal until a Maggie Zerbe layup with 2:18 left in the first quarter. The run was keyed by three crucial shots from beyond the arc as Maddie Gallic, Katie Cook and Goldbach all connected from distance.  A Goldbach layup with 4:40 left in the stanza forced a second Muhlenberg timeout as the hosts faced a 14-2 deficit.

Goldbach grabbed a defensive rebound and hit a trey on the next Haverford possession, extending the lead to a 17-2 mark.  Wetzel posted a layup with 18 seconds remaining in the quarter as Haverford went ahead 19-6.

A 6-2 spurt to begin the second allowed the Fords to go up by 18 at 26-8 with 8:26 left in the first half, the largest lead of the contest. With 2:24 in the half, Chelsea Gary converted on a jumper to cap an 8-0 Muhlenberg run, cutting the lead to just nine for Haverford. Goldbach quickly responded with a three to up the lead back to 12 and Wetzel completed a three-point play to put Haverford up 15 with 1:18 remaining in the half.

An Ashley Polera three made it a 12 point game at the halftime break. The Fords shot 56 percent from the field in a strong first half, including a 5-for-9 mark from long range. Defensively, Haverford held Muhlenberg to just a 19.4 percent shooting half and just a 2-for-12 mark from three-point land.

The third period saw Haverford open up a 16 point lead at 38-22 with 8:32 remaining in the quarter as Wetzel and Sierra Berkel converted with points in the paint. A 4-0 Muhlenberg run cut the lead to 38-26, but Goldbach responded with a three point bucket and Berkel hit one of two from the charity stripe to extend the lead back to 42-26 with 5:53 remaining. With 4:30 left, Goldbach hit one to extend the lead back to the largest lead of the contest at 18. 

The tide started to turn at that point for Muhlenberg, as the hosts clawed back with a stunning 15-0 run that cut the advantage to 44-41 going into the fourth quarter. Sarah Dilly hit a three that made it a 44-34 game with 1:57 left and after Brandi Vallely scored the next five points, Rachel Plotke finished a layup off a turnover to cut the gap to just three.

Goldbach stopped the run with a layup, but Dilly knocked down a three off an assist from Vallely to cut the lead to just two at 46-44 with 9:17 remaining in regulation. Haverford regained some breathing room on a 7-0 run as Goldbach again capped the jaunt with her fourth three-pointer of the contest with 6:50 to play.  

Goldbach yet again converted from downtown with 5:22 left, putting Haverford up eight at 56-48. In a game defined by runs, Muhlenberg again fought back with a 5-0 stretch that made it just a one possession ballgame with 2:14 to play.

The two squads traded fruitless attempts until Berkel grabbed a rebound off a miss with 17 seconds left.  Katie Cook made one of two at the line to extend the lead to 57-53, but Muhlenberg scored with 13 seconds left.

Haverford had the ball up two with under ten seconds to play, but an errant inbound pass allowed a last-ditch attempt from the hosts to try and force an improbable tie. The attempt missed the bucket and Haverford prevailed in the battle of Centennial titans. 

Megan Furch had a career-high three blocks while Gallic added a career-best seven assists for the Fords. Carley Hamilton had 11 off the bench for the Mules, who had eight different scorers contribute on the evening. 

Haverford will return to action on Thursday, February 9 in Baltimore against Johns Hopkins. The matchup is slated for 7 p.m. at Goldfarb Gym. Haverford will then return home on Saturday, Februrary 11 to take on McDaniel during Senior Day at Gooding '84 Arena.