Belmont, N.C. – Five different players scored multiple goals, led by senior Shannon Farden's four, as Belmont-Abbey defeated the Bentley University women's lacrosse team 15-8 for its fourth straight win. Senior Alyssa Ritchie (North Andover, Mass./North Andover) led the way for the Falcons with three goals. Junior Jaclyn Griffin (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) had two goals and two assists.

The Crusaders scored the first four goals of the game, which were spread out over the initial 21:30 of the opening half. Farden's unassisted goal, her first of the game, gave Belmont-Abbey a 4-0 lead with 8:30 remaining.

Griffin scored next for Bentley with 6:40 left, and that was the beginning of a three goal run for Bentley, with Ritchie scoring the next two to make the score 4-3.

The Falcons though couldn't keep the momentum going as they yielded three straight goals in the last 2:13 of the half. Senior Megan Darley scored just 24 seconds after Ritchie's second goal, and the Crusaders added two more tallies to take a 7-3 lead into halftime.

The first two goals of the second half went to the home side, before sophomore Leigh Tedeschi(Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) broke Abbey's run with a goal from Griffin to make the score 9-4.

That's as close as the Falcons would get the rest of the way however, as the Crusaders extended their lead to 12-4 with three consecutive goals, two of which came from Darley.

Freshman Torre Taylor (Locust Valley, N.Y./Friends Academy), Griffin and Ritchie added goals for Bentley over the remainder of the game.

With her three goals, Ritchie is now seven goals away from breaking the school's all-time record of 144.

The loss drops Bentley's record to 1-1 while Belmont-Abbey improves to 6-2.

The Falcons return to the field on Saturday against No. 4 Limestone at 12:00 p.m.

2009-03-12