Williamsburg - Kerry Kelly collected seven points to lead a balanced Drexel scoring attack, and goalkeeper Lauren LaBella made a pair of key saves in the second half to lead the Dragons past William and Mary, 15-9, in Colonial Athletic Association women’s lacrosse action Sunday afternoon.

Kelly scored four goals and added three assists for Drexel (8-3, 1-2 CAA), which picked up its first conference win of the season and first in the series with the Tribe. LaBella finished with seven saves overall, including four in the second half, and Gwenna Johnson contributed three goals for the Dragons.

Jaime Sellers (Kennebunk, Maine) matched a career-high with five goals and added a pair of caused turnovers and a team-high four ground balls, but it wasn’t enough to keep W&M (2-9, 0-2) from dropping its second-straight league game and fifth consecutive overall. Jamie Fitzgerald (Jenkintown, Pa.) scored a pair of goals and also forced a pair of turnovers for the Tribe.

Kelly and Sellers highlighted a back-and-forth, entertaining first period, as the pair combined for eight goals in the opening half. Sellers scored the first five goals of the game for W&M, but behind three Kelly markers and a 10-5 advantage on draws Drexel was able to take a narrow 8-6 lead at the break. The Dragons took advantage of their success on the draws, firing 15 shots on goal, and 18 total in the stanza, but Tribe netminder Sara Beckstead (Annapolis, Md.) turned aside seven of those attempts to keep it tight.

After Emily Hoesch scored the game’s first goal just 20 seconds into the contest, Sellers rattled off three-straight over the next five minutes to put the Tribe ahead, 3-1, at the 24:06 mark of the first. Sellers’ first was a rocket into the bottom left corner of the cage and the second came after a nice head fake lost a pair of Drexel defenders in traffic in front of the goal. Julia Martin (Woodside, Calif.) put a perfect pass on Sellers’ stick from behind the goal to assist on the junior’s third.

Drexel, however, answered with three consecutive scores, starting with an eight-meter goal and an unassisted tally from Kelly to knot the score, 3-3. The Dragons grabbed the ensuing restart and Katie Lawson wound up with a clear lane to the goal down the left side, but Beckstead denied her one-on-one attempt. W&M caught a tough break when the rebound caromed directly to Kaitlin Keegan, who fired home the first of two goals just 11 seconds after Kelly’s second to make it 4-3.

Katie Bradley, who scored a goal and recorded two caused turnovers and two ground balls for Drexel, snagged one of her three draw controls to start another possession, but Kristen Wong (Richmond, Va.) caused a turnover in the defensive end to end the threat. Wong finished with three caused turnovers in the game and also collected three ground balls.

W&M just missed tying the game when Emily Vitrano (Cockeysville, Md.) connected with the cross bar at the other end after taking a pinpoint feed from Kara Parker (Phoenix, Md.) in transition. After Drexel cleared the zone, Beckstead once again came up big and kept the margin at 4-3 with another save, and Kate Lawlor (Philadelphia, Pa.) turned in a terrific defensive play behind the net to jar the rebound away from a Dragon player and pick up a ground ball.

The Tribe cashed in on the defensive stand and this time captured the equalizer, when Sellers ripped the net for the fourth time at the 11:53 mark of the first.

But, in the continuing fashion of the seesaw period, Drexel answered with two-straight to pull back ahead, 6-4. Kaitlin Keegan snatched a rebound off another Beckstead save and scored the first of her two goals to make it 5-4, and Kelly used a tough individual effort to roll the crease on the left side and score her third to extend the advantage to two goals with 9:39 on the clock.

1 2 3    Next  »

2007-04-08