HAVERFORD, Pa. – With its playoff fate already sealed, the Haverford College women's lacrosse team still put its best foot forward in Saturday's 10-8 Centennial Conference loss to No. 4 Franklin & Marshall College. Haverford rallied from a five-goal deficit at the half to outscore the Diplomats 4-1 in the final 30 minutes.
Perrin Downing netted a team-high two goals for Haverford (12-4, 5-4) while six other Fords' score once. Kayleigh Herrick-Reynolds tallied one goal and two assists for a three-point day.
F&M (12-2, 8-1 CC) was led by Lauren Ehrhardt and Blake Hargest who each scored three goals. Meredith Lussier scored twice for the Diplomats. Sarah Veneski handed out a pair of assists.
After Ehrhardt's goal just over five minutes into the contest, Herrick-Reynolds countered 18 seconds later. F&M then reeled off five straight goals over an 11-minute span to take a commanding 6-1 advantage. The teams exchanged goals over the final 6:13 to provide the 9-4 halftime score in favor of F&M.
Haverford played a nearly perfect second half, which was necessary to have a chance to upend the defending national champions. The Fords won five-of-six draw control, were a perfect 4-for-4 in clearing opportunities and outshot their opponent, 8-4.
Goals by Jen Schmidt and Alexa Pesce in the first eight minutes got the Fords within three. Lussier scored the Diplomats last goal of the game at the 16:39 mark to bump the lead up to four.
Ferri scored an unassisted goal with 8:24 to go and Downing added another on an assist from Ferri less than two minutes later which made the score, 10-8.
The ensuing draw control was the only one the Fords did not win in the second half. F&M was able to stall for nearly three minutes until committing a turnover, giving Haverford just 3:40 to score twice.
Ferri was awarded a free position attempt with 1:18 left. Her shot nearly found its way in, hitting the right post. The Diplomats recovered the ball and cleared with 1:12 on the clock to seal the victory.
Siobhan Neitzel suffered the loss for Haverford, but made six saves in her final regular season home game. Leah Hammerschlag registered one save and surrendered just one goal in the second half. Lidia Sanza made four saves to pick up the win for F&M.
Prior to the game, Neitzel and fellow senior Nora Proops were honored.
The Fords will host Dickinson College in Centennial Conference tournament first round action Wednesday. Game time is yet to be determined.