HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's lacrosse team opened the season with a 12-4 victory over Susquehanna University on a sunny and seasonable Saturday afternoon at Swan Field. The Fords took a 3-0 lead in the first half and despite Susquehanna pulling within two goals midway through the second half, the hosts scored seven unanswered goals to finish the game.
Josie Ferri scored seven goals to give her 99 for her career. She also handed out an assist, picked up five ground balls and caused four turnovers. Alexa Pesce added four goals and Perrin Downing scored one and had two assists.
Taylor Watts, Lindsey Derstine, Marra Landino and Ally Bauer all scored one goal apiece for Susquehanna (0-1).
Haverford (1-0) held command of the ball for nearly the entire game, winning 11 draw controls to just six for the Crusaders. The Fords also held a 42-14 shot advantage with 26 coming in the second half.
Ferri scored first on a man-up goal in the 22nd minute. Ferri fed Pesce in front of the goal for HC's second goal at 13:02 and Ferri added another tally three minutes later.
The rest of the half went scoreless thanks mainly to the play of Susquehanna goalkeeper Emily Stankaitis. She stuffed six Haverford free position attempts and made six saves in the first half. Stankaitis kept the game close through the opening 15 minutes of the second half, allowing the Crusaders to get back into the game after Haverford opened up a 5-0 lead.
Bauer scored Susquehanna's first goal at the 18:15 mark. Pesce countered with a goal of her own before the Crusaders scored the next three goals to make the score 6-4 with less than 15 minutes to go. However, the Fords took the game over from there. Back-to-back man up goals by Ferri just eight seconds apart gave HC an 8-4 lead. Ferri tacked on another goal with 7:30 left. Pesce and Ferri combined for three more goals in the final five minutes.
Stankaitis finished with 16 saves on the day. Leah Hammerschlag had a relatively quiet day in goal for the Fords, needing to make just six saves.
Haverford heads to the University of Scranton this Wednesday at 4 p.m. for its first of three consecutive road games.