LANCASTER, PA – Attacker Kiki Foster (Sr., Denver, CO/Kent Denver) scored four goals and handed out an assist as the #8 Franklin & Marshall College women's lacrosse team opened the 2006 NCAA National Championship playoffs with an 18-4 win over North Coast Athletic Conference champion Denison University at Sponaugle-Williamson Field.

Courtesy the victory, Franklin & Marshall advances to play #14 Nazareth College on May 13 at SUNY-Cortland in a 2:30 p.m. regional semifinal game. In the early semifinal at 11:30 a.m., #5 SUNY-Cortland will take on Colorado College, which defeated Endicott College in another first round game. On May 14, the winners of the semifinals will square off at 1:00 p.m. at SUNY-Cortland in the NCAA Elite Eight with a bid to the Final Four at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey on the line.

Against the Big Red, Franklin & Marshall jumped out to a 10-0 first half lead as the Diplomats out shot Denison 21-4 in the opening 30 minutes of play to set the pace for the game.

The Diplomats took the lead 4:11 into the contest as Shannon Summers (Fr., North Wales, PA/The Hill School) scored off an assist from Kelly Cassels (Jr., Downingtown, PA/Great Valley) for a 1-0 lead. Foster added to the lead with 23:02 left in the period as she finished a centering pass from Cassels for a 2-0 lead, before Eileen Keever (Sr., Prospect Park, PA/Interboro) netted a goal off an assist from Summers at 21:33.

Summers added back-to-back scored to push the margin out to 5-0 as she scored off passes from Cassels and Sarah Meisenberg (Sr., Severna Park, MD/Severn School) at 20:39 and 18:07, respectively.

Meisenberg, Foster and Cassels set the score at 8-0 as Meisenberg scored off an assist from Foster at 17:18, Foster netted an unassisted goal at 9:56 and Cassels registered an unassisted score at 3:45.

Jen Pritchard (Fr., Media, PA/Penncrest) added to the lead with a free position goal at 3:00 and Foster closed out the first half scoring by completing a hat-trick with her third goal of the game at 2:10.

Denison cut the lead to 10-1 to open the second half as Courtney Abrams finished a pass from Rebecca Schoenherr 47 seconds into the half.

The teams traded goals as Keever scored on an assist from Meisenberg at 27:16 and the Big Red's Molly Lamdin netted an unassisted goal at 26:05 to keep Denison within nine goals of tying the game.

Franklin & Marshall clinched the win over the next 14 minutes as the Diplomats went on a 6-0 run to go ahead 17-2.

Pritchard started the run as she tallied an unassisted goal at 20:05 for her 50th goal of the season, as she became the 13th player in F&M history to score 50 or more goals in a season. Further, she is only the second freshman to reach the mark joining All-America selection Alexis O'Meara '05 who scored 52 goals in 2002.

Meisenberg followed Pritchard with a free position goal at 19:19, before Devi Hensch (Fr., Bordentown, NJ/Northern Burlington), Foster, Ellie Lisle (So., Gladwyne, PA/Harriton) netted goals assisted by Catherine Onnen (So., Lutherville, MD/St. Paul's School), Sloan Giampa (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, NY/Yorktown) and Allison Solomon (Fr., Damascus, MD/Holy Cross), respectively, for a 16-2 lead.

Keever closed out the run with a free position goal at the 12:30 mark for push the lead to 15 goals.

Denison scored twice in the final 12 minutes of play as Liz Hollick and Kristin Frost added unassisted goals at 8:06 and 4:28, respectively, while Cassels scored on a free position chance for the Diplomats at 6:25 for the 18-4 final score.

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2006-05-11