EMMITSBURG, Md. George Washington defeated Mount St. Mary's 14-7 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Thursday. Casey Paris (Longwood, Fla./Lake Brantley) paced the Mount (0-1) with three goals while Jenna Duffy (Bel Air, Md./Catholic) tallied a goal and two assists and freshman A.J. Johnson (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West) notched her first two collegiate markers in the loss.

Kristen Karcsh led the Colonials (1-1) with six goals. Meghan Cratty posted two goals and two helpers while Laura Wunk found the twine twice in the winning effort.

George Washington scored six of the first eight goals of the game and never looked back for its fourth-straight win against the Mountaineers. Trailing 2-1, Karsch took over the final 11:36 of the first half and the first two minutes of the final stanza. The junior scored three unanswered goals at 18:24, 20:00 and 20:53 for the natural hat trick and handed the Colonials a 4-2 advantage. Kristina Harvey closed out the half with an 8-meter goal at 27:45 to hand George Washington 5-2 lead at half time.

Karsch started the scoring in the final frame two minutes in before Cratty set up Wunk at the 34:03 mark for a 7-2 margin.

Paris then rolled of two-straight scores after a free-position goal at 40:05 and a goal set up by Katie Falatach (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) 42 seconds later to trim the deficit to 7-4. Wunk and Cratty each found the back of the net before Candice Welkie (Baltimore, Md./Mercy) answered for Mount St. Mary's midway through the second period.

The Colonials then rolled off four goals in a row off the sticks of Katherine Sampson, Hayley McDonough, Karsch and Katelyn Honeyford to increase its advantage to 13-5 with 6:50 on the clock.

Johnson recorded her second goal of the afternoon before Karsch capped off her six-marker performance at the 27:48 mark. Duffy connected with Paris for the Mountaineers last score at 28:29 to make the final score 14-7.

Mount St. Mary's scored two of the first three goals of the game to take a 2-1 advantage. Cratty put George Washington on the scoreboard 3:39 into the match before Duffy picked up the loose ball in front of cage and scored at 5:48. Duffy then hooked up with Johnson for her first collegiate marker at 8:41, but Karsch then took over the rest of the first half and led the Colonials to victory.

Caitlin Carmen posted 11 saves for George Washington while Jane Karger (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) made 15 stops for the Mount. Senior Jacqui Ricca (Poolesville, Md./St. John's College) paced the defense with a career-high seven ground balls and three caused turnovers while freshman Jackie Kearney (Baltimore, Md./Seton Keough) recorded four ground balls in her debut.

Mount St. Mary's started four freshman in the season opener, including local product Katie Bollinger (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill). Fellow freshman Sydney Sykes (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) came in off the bench and notched a ground ball and a caused turnover.

The Mount returns to action on Tuesday at nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins. Game time is 2:00 p.m.

2007-03-01