CHESTER, Pa. - The No. 25 Haverford College women's lacrosse team (2-1) returned to the win column in a third consecutive one-goal game, opening the month of March by eking out a 10-9 win over Widener (1-2) on Wednesday at Edith Robb Dixon Field. The Fords were paced by the efforts of Tiffany Mikulis (three goals), Sam Silverman (two goals), and Ellie Hughes (two goals) as that trio tallied six of Haverford's nine scores. Katharine Ference was a standout with a game-best seven draw controls, as Haverford held a commanding 18-5 lead in that key category.
Haverford opened up an early 2-0 lead, with Mikulis and Julia Curran each adding tallies in the first three minutes of game action. The Pride evened things up at 2-2, firing back with goals from Jamie DeHaven and Clark Trowbridge, but Silverman added a tally before the first quarter clock expired.
The Fords held a slight 5-4 edge at halftime, as Brooke Epstein notched her first career goal and Mikulis also tallied again in the second stanza. Haverford opened up the second half on a 3-1 scoring run, with Hughes scoring twice in that stretch and Silverman adding a tally. Goals from Ference and Mikulis eventually opened up a three-goal cushion with just 6:27 left in regulation, but the Pride finished the contest with the final two goals to reflect the one-goal margin as Trowbridge and Annalee Doyle each found the back of the net off costly Haverford turnovers in the waning moments of action.
Suddenly, Widener had designs on a comeback bid late, back within just one goal, but Haverford went back to Ference in the draw circle, as the senior captain helped secure the victory with a crucial draw win with just 1:07 to play and Haverford content to play keepaway and seal things with the shot clock off. Rachel Marlin made a pair of saves, picking up her second win of the season in another spirited 60 minutes between the pipes for the rookie sophomore.
Haverford improves to 14-5 all-time against the Pride, as the two teams were meeting for the first time since a March 6, 2010 neutral site meeting at Swarthmore, a contest that was played as part of the Tri-Co Invitational.
Women's Lacrosse has one final game in Pennsylvania before heading out to Southern California for Spring Break, as the Fords will do battle with an always formidable Scranton side on Saturday, March 4 (3 p.m.) in the Electric City before primetime matchups with No. 22 Pomona-Pitzer on Tuesday and Occidental on Friday of next week.