Pleasantville, N.Y. – Senior midfielder
Vicki Graveline (Syracuse, N.Y./West Genesee) scored four goals to lead the top-ranked Le Moyne College women's lacrosse team to a 10-5 victory over 11th-ranked Pace University on Wednesday night in Northeast-10 Conference action at Pace Stadium.
With the victory, the Dolphins improve to 15-0 on the season and 12-0 in the conference and clinch the top seed in next week's Northeast-10 Conference Championships. The Dolphins, who earn at least a share of the regular season title for the fourth time in six years, will host a first round game next Wednesday against the eighth seed.
Following eight minutes of scoreless action to start the game, Pace opened the game's scoring off a rebound. Casey Gelderman picked up the ball after a shot in the post and deposited it into the net for her 55th goal of the year.
The Dolphins answered with three straight goals, the first two of which came in a span of 21 seconds. Graveline tied the score at the 20:35 mark by converting a free-position shot. She put the Dolphins in front with 20:14 left with her 37th goal of the season. After freshman goalkeeper
Hannah George (Johnson City, N.Y./Maine-Endwell) made five saves over the next 10 minutes, sophomore attacker
Bryanna Fazio (Watertown, N.Y./General Brown) tallied her 15th goal of the year with 9:54 left off a free-position shot.
Courtney Sulfaro got the Setters back within one with 3:41 left in the half off a pass in transition from Juliana Marcolini.
Freshman midfielder
Nicole Delany (Camillus, N.Y./West Genesee) pushed Le Moyne's lead back to two with an unassisted goal, her 25th of the season, with 38 seconds left before halftime.
As she did in the first half, Gelderman started the scoring in second half with an unassisted tally 25 seconds into the period.
Le Moyne countered with four straight goals to take control of the game. Graveline ignited the run with a free-position goal with 27:57 remaining. Senior midfielder
Molly McGuane (Marcellus, N.Y./Marcellus) followed at the 24:38 mark with her 14th goal of the year. Junior attacker
Jacqueline Pardee (Camillus, N.Y./West Genesee) put the Dolphins up 7-3 with 17:09 to play off a feed from freshman attacker
Sidney Hall (Adams Center, N.Y./South Jefferson). Just 62 seconds later, Hall found the back of the net on a free-position shot for her 27th goal of the season.
Pace, which visits Stonehill on Friday night to determine which team will host the other next Wednesday in the 4-5 game of the NE10 Championship, countered with back-to-back goals to trim its deficit back to three. Emily Ankabrandt snapped Le Moyne's run with her 11th goal of the year with 12:15 remaining. Only 50 seconds later, Abby Haimson tallied her 54th marker of the campaign.
Fazio extended Le Moyne's lead back to four with 8:43 left in the contest. Graveline capped the game's scoring with an unassisted goal with 5:20 to play.
George, who was named the NE10 Goalkeeper of the Week on Monday, finished the game with a career high-tying 11 saves, including nine in the first half, to earn her 15th win of the year. Alissa Silvestri also made 11 saves in the loss for the Setters.