ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The No. 5 seeded Haverford College women's lacrosse team defeated the No. 4 seeded Muhlenberg College Mules, 15-12, in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs at Scotty Wood Stadium.
The Fords' offense started off fast by tallying three goals in the first six and half minutes of game action. Senior Diana Perry registered her 48th goal of the season at the 27:45 mark. Three minutes later, junior Christina Gould scored on a free-position goal. About a minute later, senior Hannah Morgan got one past the Muhlenberg goaltender, Kiersten Mulvey, leading to a Mules' timeout. Freshman Molly Lausten continued the offensive firepower for the Fords with a free-position goal one minute later.
Muhlenberg's Kayleigh Theis broke up the four-goal outburst by the Fords with 21 minutes left in the first half, but the Fords' offense kept pushing ahead with goals from Elyse Adler, sophomore Sarina Manetta and senior Dayna Kim. The Mules' Nora Fisher added a goal to make the score 7-2, but the Fords ended the half with five consecutive goals to head into halftime up 12-2.
Morgan led the Fords with a hat trick in the first 30 minutes of game action, while eight different players scored for the visitors. Haverford outshot Muhlenberg 15-7, created 12 turnovers, and made 10 of its 12 clears attempts.
The home team did not go away as it scored eight of the first nine goals of the second half, including seven straight goals that cuts its deficit to 13-10 with 6:23 on the clock. Stephanie Umbach (four goals) and Sarah McTamany (two goals) led the comeback for the Mules. Perry's fourth goal of the game stopped the Mules' run to make it 14-10 with 5:33 to go in the game, but Muhlenberg kept the pressure on, scoring two more goals to get within two. Morgan's fourth goal of the contest with seven seconds left sealed the victory for the Fords.
Morgan and Perry led the Haverford offense with four goals each. Perry also had two ground balls and five draw controls while senior Brianna Robbins had a team-high three caused turnovers. Perry now has 177 career goals, ranking her third all-time in program history. Lausten's two goals in the game gives the team two 40-goal scorers for the first time since the 2005 season. Adler and Gould each had a goal and two assists in the victory.
Umbach had a game-high five goals while McTamany and Fisher had two goals each in the loss.
Haverford improved to 11-7 overall and will now take on the No. 1 seed Gettysburg on the road on Saturday beginning at noon. Earlier this year, the Fords took down the No. 4 ranked Bullets 11-10 in double overtime at Swan Field.