April 18, 2008

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Saint Joseph's led two two-goal leads slip away as George Washington defeated the Hawks, 9-7 on Senior Day Friday afternoon. SJU was led by Jenna Martino who tallied four goals and Suzy Herlihy who made 13 saves.

GW used a 3-0 run to tie the game, take the lead, and put it away in the second half, while SJU's offense sputtered out. On a warm day, the Colonials' offense continued to roll along when Katherine Sampson scored an unassisted goal with 17:11 remaining to knot the score at 7.

Four minutes later, Mia Breheny made a similar play to put the Colonials ahead for the first time since the 26:03 mark in the first half at 8-7. While SJU tried to find an equalizer, GW retained possession and started to bleed the clock. Finally, the Colonials released the ball when Laura Wunk found Taylor Donohue for the insurance goal with 3:38 left.

The first half was controlled by the Hawks after the early GW goal. Jessica Westlake, Kelly Huether and Abby Renninger scored successive goals to make it 3-1 with 19:48 in the first half. After a GW goal, Martino responded with her first on a free position shot attempt to make it 4-2 with 13:48 to go.

Two botched defensive clears by the Hawks led to Colonial goals in 45 seconds time, evening the game at four going into half time.

When Rae Wojnar won control of the second half draw, she ran down field and found a darting Martino for the tally. GW came back five minutes later to tie the game up again at five with 24 minutes to go. Martino would again provide the offense for SJU as she scored two goals in three minutes surrounding another GW goal to give the Hawks their last lead of the game at 7-6 with 18:50 remaining.

The loss knocked SJU out of Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament contention and saw the Hawks fall to 7-8 on the season and 2-4 in the Atlantic 10. GW finished its season 5-11, 3-4 in Atlantic 10 play.