April 5, 2009

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Pa.---Helped by 17 saves from Suzy Herlihy and five goals from Jenna Martino, the Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team earned the program's first win over Duquesne, 15-10, at Rooney Field on Sunday afternoon. The Hawks beat the Dukes for the first time in 10 tries and won their fifth-straight road game.

Saint Joseph's (7-6, 3-1 Atlantic 10) opened up a seven-goal lead with 25:20 remaining in the second half with a 7-1 run. During the onslaught, which lasted 22:23, Martino recorded three straight tallies--one that ended the first half and two more in the second half's opening minutes.

Aside from Martino, the 7-1 run was helped by goals from Helene Tursi, Meghan McDevitt and Jessica Westlake who scored two of them.

The strong netminding of Herlihy closed the door on the Dukes, who staged a comeback getting within three at 13-10 with just 2:36 remaining. Westlake responded 16 seconds later, winning the draw and scoring her fourth goal of the afternoon to quell any thoughts of a Duquesne (5-8, 1-2 A-10) comeback.

Herlihy had to make 12 second-half saves as the Dukes out-shot Saint Joseph's, 22-14 in the frame. For the game DU held a 33-25 advantage. Twenty-one of 25 shots reached the goal for SJU.

Saint Joseph's started the game with a 3-1 lead thanks to two goals from Tursi and another by Julie Mineweaser. After a Duquesne tally is when SJU's decisive run began.

After the run, the Hawks allowed the Dukes to go on a quick 3-1 spurt of their own, which ended at the 20:13 mark in the second. Martino had the lone SJU goal during that span.

The two teams would go on to trade goals as McDevitt and Westlake scored at 11:46 and 6:16 to go, respectively to make it a 13-7 game. The Dukes responded with three goals of their own, before Westlake and Martino finished the game with their two tallies.

For the game, Tursi had three goals on six shots while McDevitt ended up with two. Mineweaser had a goal and an assist and Jen Peters tallied one assist.

The game saw just 15 turnovers from the two sides--eight from SJU and seven from Duquesne. The Dukes had eight ground balls to SJU's six while the Hawks were successful on eight-of-nine clear attempts while Duquense was a perfect three-for-three.

Aside from today being the first time the Hawks have defeated the Dukes in women's lacrosse, it is also the first time SJU has started A-10 play 3-1.

SJU takes on La Salle Thursday at 3:00 p.m. on Finnesey Field seeking the program's first winning A-10 season and will try to match the program's season high of eight wins (2001, 2004).