WASHINGTON- The #14 CUA women's lacrosse team rolled to an 8-5 victory over #25 Roanoke College on their home field Sunday afternoon. With the win, the squad improve to 4-2 on the year, while Roanoke drops to 3-3.

The duo of Kate Robinson (Emmitsburg, Md./Catoctin) and Mary Swarthout (Rockville, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel) proved once again to be a winning coalition, as the two combined for four points and three assists on the afternoon. Swarthout also added five groundballs. Four other Cardinals chipped in goals of their own in the victory, including Kelly Ryan (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur), Kiki Sackett (Olney, Md./Magruder), Katie Buonpastore (Lansdale, Pa./Lansdale Catholic), and Laura Haring (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./Mt. Sinai).

Buonpastore and Becky Borrell (Oreland, Pa./Mt. St. Joseph Academy) also recorded seven and six groundballs, respectively. Goaltender Melissa Brashear (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic) stopped 8 shots in the win.

Roanoke used a balanced offensive attack to quickly jump out to a 4-2 lead in the opening minutes of the game. A free position shot by Ryan at the 13 minute mark sparked a 5-0 run for the Cardinals that would leave the Maroons stunned.

Buonpastore found the back of the net off a free position shot at the beginning of the second stanza to give the Cards an 8-4 advantage. Despite a Roanoke goal at the 17 minute mark, both teams remained relatively quiet for the remainder of the game, and CUA ran away with the 8-5 victory.

The Cardinals will look to continue their winning ways on Wednesday, March 18th for a home game against St. Mary's (Md.). Game time is set for 4:00 p.m.

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WASHINGTON -- #25 Roanoke College fell to #14 Catholic, 8-5 in non-conference action Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Cardinals improved to 4-2 on the year, while Roanoke dropped to 3-3.

The duo of Kate Robinson and Mary Swarthout proved too much for the Maroons, as the two combined for four points and three assists on the afternoon.

Defensively, the Cardinals dominated the contest with a 50-27 groundball advantage and an 11-3 edge in draw controls. Buonpastore and Becky Borrell recorded seven and six groundballs, respectively. Goaltender Melissa Brashear stopped eight shots in the win.

The Maroons were outshot, 14-7 in the first half which led to an 7-4 halftime advantage. They were unsuccessful in all seven free-position attempts with Catholic scoring on 5-of-7 of theirs.

Roanoke used a balanced offensive attack to jump out to a 4-2 lead in the opening minutes of the game. Brooks Laufman got the scoring underway early with a goal just two minutes into the contest. After a CUA goal, Ella Wade and Gina Valles scored to make it, 3-1 and seemed in control.

A Cardinals goal 30-seconds later cut their deficit to one but Sunni Ray's goal from Mary Kate Cummings put the Maroons back up two, 4-2 with 20-minutes left in the half.

It remained quiet over the next seven minutes of play before a free position shot by Kelly Ryan at the 13-minute mark sparked a 6-0 run for the Cardinals that would leave the Maroons stunned.

Buonpastore found the back of the net off a free position shot at the beginning of the second stanza to give the Cards an 8-4 advantage. Despite a Roanoke goal by Paige Mason at the 17-minute mark, both teams remained relatively quiet for the remainder of the game, and CUA held on for the 8-5 victory.

Laufman was the lone bright spot for the Maroons in defeat as she became the 26th member of the 100-point club. She is just behind Valles with 105 career points.

Katlyn Scarlett had 13 saves, coming up big for the Maroons in the second half with seven saves and only one goal in defeat. Valles led the Maroons with five groundballs while Ray, Meeghan Rourke and Scarlett collected four each. Carolyn Clark had three caused turnovers with Mason credited with two of her own.

The women will return to action on Tuesday as they travel to play Lynchburg in the ODAC-opener. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.

2009-03-15