ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Sophomore midfielder Erin Rawlick (Forest Hill, Md.) scored five goals and dished out two assists, while freshman midfielder Meg Decker (Catonsville, Md.) and sophomore attack Mary Ruttum (Annapolis, Md.) scored four goals apiece to lead Navy (1-0) to an easy 21-10 victory over Longwood (0-3) in Navys first-ever Division I womens lacrosse game Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

We wanted to come out and make a statement today about Navy womens lacrosse, said Navy head coach Cindy Timchal. I am excited about the way we played. It was a great start for our program.

I am very happy with the way we played today, said Rawlick. Weve come a long way from those first tryouts two years ago when we couldnt even catch the ball very well. We looked like a real Division I team today. We have great coaching and great senior leadership and we came out and made a statement today about our program.

Junior attack Sarah Bushong (West River, Md.) will go down in the record books as the first Navy womens lacrosse player to score a goal in a Division I game as she picked up a ground ball off a Ruttum shot that banged off the pipes and fired it past Longwood goalie Jennifer Holliday with 28:10 left in the first half.

Navy would score three more times in the next three minutes to take a 4-0 lead thanks to a free position goal by Rawlick, a goal by senior attack Kaylene Klingenstein (Beltsville, Md.) off an assist from Rawlick and a Ruttum goal off an assist from Decker.

Longwood would battle back to cut the lead to 4-2 on goals by Liz Sellmayer and Dee Warehime, but freshman midfielder Katrina Nietsch (New Canaan, Conn.) answered with a free position goal and Ruttum scored off an assist from senior captain Amanda Towey (Smithtown, N.Y.) to make the score 6-2.

The Mids increased their lead to six at 10-4 on a goal by Rawlick off an assist from Towey with 17:46 left in the half and Navy was able to maintain a healthy margin for the remainder of the half and took a 13-8 lead into the locker room.

Navy put the game away at the start of the second half with four goals in the first 4:21 getting scores from Nietsch (from Rawlick), Ruttum (from Towey), Klingenstein and Decker (from Towey) to go up 17-8 and the Mids never looked back from there.

We have a chance to be pretty good on offense, said Timchal. We executed pretty well today and we did a good job on the draw controls. I thought we were unselfish with the ball and the girls did a good job of looking for each other.

Navy out-hustled Longwood all day, getting 61 ground balls compared to just 35 for the visitors, including a 37-19 margin in the first half. Navy won 20 of the 33 draw controls in the game.

Senior Natalie Blandon (Rockville, Md.) was impressive in goal for the Mids, coming up with nine saves and allowing Longwood just five goals on 14 free-position shots.

It feels great to come away with a win today, said Ruttum. We had some pressure on us to come out and perform and I thought we played well together. We are going to be the underdogs all year and we have to come out and fight in every game.

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Score by Period       1  2  Tot
-------------------------------
Longwood............  8  2 - 10
Navy................ 13  8 - 21
 
Attendance: 211
 
Longwood SCORING:
GOALS: Warehime, Dee 3; Dean, Kesley 1; O'Brien, Cara 1; Owen, Michelle 1;
       Farmer, Page 1; Sellmayer, Liz 1; Brentlinger, Karli 1; Haines; Joyce 1.
ASSISTS: Dean, Kesley 1; O'Brien, Cara 1.
 
Navy SCORING:
GOALS: Rawlick, Erin 5; Decker, Meg 4; Ruttum, Mary 4; Nietsch; Katrina 3;
       Klingenstein, Kaylen 3; Towey, Amanda 1; Bushong, Sarah 1.
ASSISTS: Towey, Amanda 4; Rawlick, Erin 2; Decker, Meg 1; Nietsch, Katrina 1.
 
SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  Tot
-------------------------------
Longwood............ 18  9 - 27
Navy................ 23 18 - 41
 
GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  Tot
-------------------------------
Longwood............ 12  8 - 20
Navy................ 16 13 - 29
 
FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     Total
-------------------------------------
Longwood............  0-0   0-0  -  0-0
Navy................  0-0   0-0  -  0-0
 
CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     Total
----------------------------------------
Longwood............  7-7   4-7  - 11-14
Navy................  6-8   4-4  - 10-12
 
EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     Total
----------------------------------------
Longwood............  0-0   0-0  -  0-0
Navy................  0-0   0-0  -  0-0
 
SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  Tot
-------------------------------
Longwood............  4  4 -  8
Navy................  3  6 -  9
 
TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  Tot
-------------------------------
Longwood............ 11  8 - 19
Navy................ 12  6 - 18

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2008-02-23