WASHINGTON, DC – Sophomore Mia Breheny (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) scored all four of her goals in the first half as the George Washington women's lacrosse team rolled to a 9-2 halftime lead and held on for its first victory of the season, 15-9, against visiting Mount St. Mary's Wednesday afternoon at Mount Vernon Field.

GW (1-5), which faced three Top 15 teams and five opponents with a current combined record of 18-5 to start the season, ended the Mount's three-game winning streak and gave first-year head coach Tara Hannaford her first career victory. The Colonials have beated the Mount in each of the last five seasons.

Breheny opened the scoring just 33 seconds in, but the Mount's Rebecca Douglas tied the game 1:32 later. Senior Kristin Karcsh (Kennett Square, PA/Bishop Shanahan) gave GW the lead for good just over a minute later and junior Meghan Cratty (Wilton, CT/Wilton) made it 3-1 with 22:49 left in the half.

The Mount's (3-3) leading scorer Katelyn Catanese netted a free-position goal at the 21:25 mark to cut the margin to 3-2, but the Colonials ended the half with six unanswered goals, with Breheny scoring four points and senior Laura Wunk (Ellicott City, MD/Mount Hebron) adding three during the run, to grab a 9-2 lead at halftime.

Karcsh continued the run with her second goal of the game 27 seconds into the second half to give GW a commanding 10-2 cushion.

Mount St. Mary's attempted to rally, scoring five of the next seven goals to close within 12-7 with 10:58 remaining. Ashley Johnson had two goals and Douglas had two assists during the 5-2 spurt.

GW clinched the victory with a 3-0 run over a span of five minutes, capped by Karcsh's third goal of the game to regain an eight-goal lead, 15-7, with 4:19 to play. Junior Katherine Sampson (Larchmont, NY/Mamaroneck) completed her hat trick to start the run, while sophomore Taylor Donohue (Villanova, PA/Radnor) scored her second goal of the half on an assist from Breheny to make it 14-7.

Catanese tallied two goals in the final four minutes to finish with a game-high four goals.

Karcsh added six draw controls, two caused turnovers and a ground ball along with her hat trick. Breheny set a career-high with six points on four goals and two assists, while Sampson had a game-high three caused turnovers. Junior Katie Lilly (Riva, MD/South River) had a team-high four ground balls and classmate Alaska Burr (Marion, MA/Tabor Academy) chipped in three draw controls.

Senior goalkeeper Caitlin Garman (Baltimore, MD/Friends School) made one save on seven shots faced in 44 minutes of action. Freshman Elizabeth Hoffman (Owings Mills, MD/Beth Tfiloh) made six stops over the final 16 minutes of play.

GW outshot the Mount 32-18, including a 20-5 margin in the first half.

The Colonials travel to California for their next two games. GW visits Saint Mary's (CA) on Monday at 6:30 pm ET, then heads to Berkeley to battle California on Thursday at 6:30 pm ET.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – George Washington defeated Mount St. Mary's 15-9 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Wednesday.

Katelyn Catanese (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) paced the Mount (3-3) with four goals. Rebecca Douglass (White Hall, Md./Towson Catholic) tallied one marker and two assists while Ashley Johnson (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West) found the twine twice in the losing effort.

Mia Breheny fueled the Colonials (1-5) with four goals and two assists. Laura Wunk registered a marker and three helpers, and Kristin Karsch posted a hat trick in the win.

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2008-03-12