LEWISBURG, Pa. – Buoyed by a career night from sophomore midfielder Bonnie Buechel (South Orange, N.J./Columbia), the Bucknell women's lacrosse team snapped a four-game losing streak by holding off Wagner 19-12 on Thursday night at chilly Graham Field. Buechel equaled her personal best with six points on four goals and two assists, and she corralled a career-high eight draw controls, including six straight that all led to goals after the Seahawks had cut a once-hefty deficit down to just one.

Bucknell's freshman class combined for nine goals, including four from Chelsea Peters (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor), three from Alison Heffernan (Malvern, Pa./Agnes Irwin School) and two from Carol Donohue (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon). Sophomore Sarah Collins (Goldens Bridge, N.Y./John Jay) added two goals and two assists for the Bison, who will now take a 5-7 overall record into Saturday's critical Patriot League contest at American.

Kelly Blundin registered four goals and two assists, and Teri Noll had three goals and an assist for Wagner, which fell to 2-10.

Bucknell needed only 22 seconds to get started on its highest scoring output since a 23-7 win over Denver on Apr. 3, 2004. Buechel netted the team's first two goals of the night as the Bison sprinted to an 8-1 lead, with half of those goals coming on free-position shots.

Ashley Flood (Westfield, N.J./Lawrenceville School) scored her third goal of the season from point-blank range after Buechel passed out of a double-team, giving the Bison a 10-3 lead with 9:54 left in the first half.

Wagner rallied within 10-5 at intermission after goals from Blundin and Janine Bright, and it was an 11-7 game after Noll scored with 25:25 left in the second half. Collins helped quell the rally momentarily when she assisted on goals by Lauren Deitrich (Collegeville, Pa./Hill School) and Donohue only 1:15 apart.

Things then got a bit tense for the Bison faithful, as the Seahawks posted five goals in a row to pull within 13-12. Bucknell's only failed clear in 17 attempts helped start the comeback. Freshman goalie Katie Hartsock (Wayne, Pa./Conestoga), who did not start for the first time this season, had an errant pass gobbled up by Cara Gonzalez, who ran to the goal and at the last minute passed to Noll, who scored to make it 13-8.

Noll scored again on a free-position shot just 21 seconds later, and by the time Blundin scored with 11:35 to play it was a 13-12 game.

Then Buechel took the game over for the Bison. She cleanly won the ensuing draw, and a minute later Deitrich buried one in the upper right corner of the cage on an 8-meter shot to make it 14-12. Buechel won another possession for Bucknell, then she charged from behind the net and scored from the right side to restore a three-goal lead and some breathing room with 8:30 to play.

The Bison were not finished, though, tacking on four more goals before Wagner could manage another possession. Peters scored on a free-position shot with 5:58 left, then 42 seconds later Erin Weinstein (Stanfordville, N.Y./Deerfield Academy) shook a defender behind the net and scored her third of the year after a nice individual move. Peters and Collins finished out the scoring in the final two minutes.

Bucknell won 23 of the 33 draw controls in the game. In addition to Buechel's eight draws, Peters picked up six and Heffernan had five. Buechel also had five ground balls and three caused turnovers, while Deitrich and Lauren Kremer (Chadds Ford, Pa./Unionville) had four takeaways apiece.

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2007-04-13