SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The No. 23 Haverford College women's lacrosse team (11-5, 6-2 CC) concluded their 2024 regular season with a road win, defeating Swarthmore (8-7, 2-7 CC) by a 9-7 final at Clothier Field Stadium on the campus of Swarthmore College.
Tiffany Mikulis and Brooke Epstein led the Fords in goals with three each, while Jordan Denaver, Ellie Hughes, and Sophie Jaffe contributed one goal apiece.
Defensively, Swarthmore native senior Lizzie Healy caused two turnovers and scooped up four ground balls, while Lauren Paprocki forced two turnovers and collected two ground balls.
Mikulis gathered seven draw controls on the day, while Kylie McNamara came away with three. Defending the net was first-year goalkeeper Lizzie Symonds, who denied 11 of her 18 shots faced in the contest.
Haverford opened the contest with two unanswered goals as Mikulis and Denaver found the back of the net to give the visitors a quick 2-0 lead. The Garnet answered back with two goals of their own before a free-position tally from Hughes gave the Fords a 3-2 advantage heading into the second quarter.
Zoe Crawford pulled a goal back for Swarthmore a minute into the second stanza before four-straight goals from the Scarlet and Black had the visitors up 7-3 at the halftime break. The 4-0 scoring run was highlighted by two goals from Epstein, one from Mikulis, and one from Jaffe.
The third quarter saw only three goals scored, all coming from the host Garnet, as two more goals from Isabela Bloomquist and another from Crawford trimmed the Haverford lead down to a one-goal game at 7-6, with one quarter remaining.
Just 42 seconds into the final period of play, Mikulis fired in her third goal of the contest, giving the Fords a much-needed insurance goal, bringing the score to 8-6. Not to be outdone, Epstein added her third goal of the matchup at the 10:21 mark, adding yet another crucial insurance goal to the visitor's 9-6 lead.
Annabel Stifler scored a player-up goal with just 1:58 to go in the fourth quarter. However, it was too little, too late for Swarthmore as Haverford picked up a 9-7 victory in the Hood Trophy rivalry series, picking up a crucial point for the Fords in the all-sports series with the Garnet.
The Fords now enter the Centennial Conference tournament as the third seed for the third consecutive season. Haverford squares off with sixth-seeded Dickinson in First Round action on Wednesday at Swan Field. Game time will be determined during Monday's pre-tournament conference call. The Fords dispatched Dickinson by a 13-6 final in the first contest of the CC slate on March 23 in a driving rainstorm on Swan Field.