Bevington's Barrage Bites Bullets

LANCASTER, Pa. - Ashley Bevington scored four goals in an eight-minute stretch to help #3 Franklin & Marshall pull away from #5 Gettysburg in the second half of the Diplomats' 16-10 Centennial Conference (CC) win on Tuesday. The Diplomats (15-1, 9-0 CC) cashed in on a spate of Bullets' (13-2, 8-1 CC) yellow cards in the second half to build their lead.

The victory gives F&M its third consecutive season without a loss in Centennial play, and the right to host the weekend portion of the CC Championships for the third consecutive season.

Neither team claimed a lead of more than a single goal in the first 36-minutes of play. Trailing 7-6, Franklin & Marshall watched three of Gettysburg's starters leave the field on yellow cards in a span of 17 seconds. The second, issued to Hollis Stahl, gave Jen Pritchard a shot from eight-meters. Pritchard buried the FPS to knot things at 7-7.

Pritchard's tally was the first of three F&M goals in a span of 36 seconds. Pritchard then collected a Sarah Meisnberg pass off of the draw to score again 20 seconds later. That was followed by the first of Bevington's four just 16 seconds later, making it a 9-7 game.

Bevington's third goal, at 20:12, came with all of the Bullets' personnel back on the field. It stood as the game-winner, her second in as many games against top five opponents. Bevington scored the game-winner against TCNJ on Friday night. She scored again at 16:07 to cap her run and make it a 12-7 game. 5:08 later, Nina Emala scored on a free position to stop the bleeding, but the Diplomats outlasted their guests from there.

Seven cards were issued in the game. The Diplomats collected four of them. Merdeith Lussier was responsible for the first two and spent the final 43:30 watching from the F&M sideline.

The game was virtually a statistical dead heat. F&M outshot the Bullets 31-26. Both keepers recorded ten saves. Despite the F&M failure to cash in on an open net FPS thanks to quick-handed Bullet defender in the early going, the Diplomats were able to make good on half of their six eight-meter attempts. The Bullets scored on just one of their four.

In addition to Bevington's four goals, F&M got a six-point afternoon out of Pricthard. Already the school's leader in goals scored, she added four more and a pair of assists today to finish the game resting neatly on the 250-goal and 300-point plateaus. She is only the second Diplomat to reach the 300-point mark, and is now 12 points shy of the career record at F&M. The Diplomats all-time leading assister, Shannon Summers, added three more today. She is now 13 points away from 300 in her career.

Gettysburg got a hat trick and an assist from Nina Emala, while Lexie Hearn added a pair of goals.

The Diplomats are idle until Saturday when F&M will host either McDaniel or Dickinson in the Centennial Conference semifinals.

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LANCASTER, Pa. – Second-ranked Franklin & Marshall College out-scored fourth-ranked Gettysburg College 10-4 in the second half to pull out a 16-10 Centennial Conference victory on Tuesday, April 21, and lock up the top seed for the conference tournament this weekend. Junior Nina Emala (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr) recorded three goals and an assist for Gettysburg, which will enter the conference playoffs as the No. 2 seed.

Each of the last six match ups between Gettysburg (13-2, 8-1 CC) and Franklin & Marshall (15-1, 9-0 CC) have featured both teams ranked in the top four of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) rankings with the Diplomats winning each instance as the higher-ranked team. Tuesday's contest opened with a goal by the hosts, but the Bullets quickly countered as Emala and junior Hollis Stahl (Highstown, N.J./Peddie School) scored back-to-back goals about a minute apart.

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2009-04-21