April 9, 2009
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA---The Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team defeated La Salle, 16-6, to earn the Hawks' first winning Atlantic 10 season on Thursday at Finnesey Field. Jenna Martino led SJU with four goals and four assists, while freshmen Meghan McDevitt and Jen Peters scored four goals apiece.
Saint Joseph's (8-6, 4-1 Atlantic 10) opened the game with three goals from Martino, Julie Mineweaser and Peters in succession 14:34 into the contest.
La Salle (4-8, 1-4 Atlantic 10) responded with two tallies of their own with 12:08 and 9:37 to go, respectively. SJU would answer back with three straight goals to end the half by Peters, McDevitt and Jessica Westlake for a 6-2 lead.
Peters began the scoring in the second with her third of the game at 27:15, but La Salle added another just 10 seconds later to make it 7-3. That would be the closest the Explorers would be the rest of the day.
Saint Joseph's scored five straight from 25:33 to the 16:19 mark thanks to Peters' fourth goal, McDevitt's second, Westlake's second and a pair by Martino, her second and third, respectively to make the game 12-3.
La Salle would go on to net three of the next four goals over the next eight minutes with the lone SJU tally coming from Martino's fourth strike of the day at 10:51. Martino leads the team with 44 goals on the season and upped her team-leading assists total to 16. She needs just 11 points in the final two regular season games to surpass Shannon Feite for the single season points record.
The Hawks closed with three goals, two by McDevitt and another by Grace Dinn for the final score line of 16-6.
Saint Joseph's out-shot La Salle, 33-14 overall and 18-7 in the second half. The Hawks edged the Explorers 23-10 in ground balls, 12-11 in draw controls and forced La Salle into 18 turnovers to SJU's 11.
Suzy Herlihy made five saves to earn the win between the pipes for the Hawks.
The Hawks moved another step closer to just their second Atlantic 10 Tournament berth. With some help this weekend SJU could clinch depending on the outcomes of some A-10 match ups.
Saint Joseph's matched its highest season win total with eight today and the first winning A-10 season as well as the best start in conference play. The Hawks own second place a half-game behind UMass and a half game ahead of George Washington.
