Box Score
Grantham, PA — The Messiah-Elizabethtown College rivalry may be flourishing in the sport of women's lacrosse, but that was little consolation to Falcons' head coach Heather Greer Wednesday evening at Anderson Field.
Greer had just watched her team squander an early 6-3 lead over the Blue Jays, eventually dropping a heartbreaking, 16-15 decision — the second straight one-goal result with E'Town.
“We have played E'Town away for the last four years, including the post-season, so it felt good to have them on our field and play them at home,” she said. “It would have felt a lot better if we could have hung on.”
Greer expected Wednesday's tilt to be a battle, and it was. Following a 13-8 loss to the Blue Jays during regular-season play last year, Messiah nabbed a 6-5 win over E'Town in the 2009 MAC Championship — earning the program's second-ever league title and berth into the NCAA Tournament.
“We knew E'Town would want revenge, so we knew we had to play a great game to come out on top,” Greer said.
Early on, it looked as if Messiah (3-3, 1-1) would do just that, as freshman Maddie Comfort scored the first two goals of the game. Sophomore Deb Tam then blasted home her second goal of the year with just under nine minutes elapsed in the contest, giving the Falcons a 3-0 lead.
Elizabethtown (4-3, 3-0) would score three of the game's next four goals, but a free position shot from sophomore Megan Doolittle and a score from junior Megan Bovenzi put Messiah up by a 6-3 score with 11:36 remaining in the first half.
But that's where the game slowly began to slip away.
E'Town's Sarah Cullinan ignited a 4-0 Blue Jays' run with two of her five scores on the afternoon, putting the visitors up by a 7-6 score with 1:19 to play. A last-second free position score from freshman Cecilia Kjellman knotted things at the intermission, but Messiah's early momentum was lost.
“We came out strong and were patient with our shots but we were making a lot of errors that E'Town would capitalize on and convert to goals. We forced them to make mistakes in their transition game, but we couldn't really convert their mistakes into anything good for us.”
What ensued in the second half was an absolute scorefest, each team trading punches in a period that would produce a total 17 goals.
The Falcons struck first just 50 seconds in, with Bovenzi scoring off an incredible feed from Tam.
“That was one of the prettiest goals I've seen all season,” Greer said. “Deb drove to the cage drawing two (defenders) and sent a pass to Meg that was a little too high, but Meg snagged it and quick-sticked it with power into the back of the net. It really was a fun goal to watch.”
Sophomore Rachel Dirksen then made it an 8-6 Falcons' lead, notching an unassisted tally with 28:28 to play.
E'Town would tie the score just over a minute later, however, setting up a final 25 minutes of play that would produce five ties and two lead changes — the Blue Jays then refusing to let Messiah get the lead back after a goal from Katie Caprinolo with 23:28 to play.
The crushing moment came with just under 10 minutes to play, as another goal from Dirksen made it a 14-14 ballgame. E'Town tacked on markers at the 9:09 and 8:03 marks, however, taking a 16-14 lead.
The Blue Jays dominated possession from that point, and Messiah was able to force just one turnover with a little over a minute remaining — resulting in a score from sophomore Rachel Coyle.
Sadly, E'Town collected the ensuing draw control, sitting on the ball and escaping Anderson Field with the nail-biter win.
Bovenzi paced the Falcons' offense with four goals off of just four shots — coming up with four draw controls as well. Comfort and Dirksen each scored three goals. Doolittle added one.
Freshman Taylor Phillips came up with 16 saves in the cage for Messiah, but 21 total turnovers and a 10 of 18 effort on clears hindered the efforts.
“Our transition game just never got going today, and that's such a key part of a win,” Greer said. “It was a game of possession. Whoever had the ball seemed to score and we just didn't hold on to the ball well in the last eight minutes which cost us the game. Cullinan is a great player, but we were not effective as a team defending her cuts into the eight.
“I was really happy with the way Megan Bovenzi played for us,” Greer continued. “She is such a workhorse. She goes 100 percent at everything she does and had her personal best game of the season. She was big on the draws for us and shot 100 percent. Hands down she has the hardest shot on our team, so when she has placement on her shot, it is money every time.”
Messiah will continue its MAC schedule Saturday, when the team will travel to Misericordia University for a 1 p.m. tilt.
“We've got to get back to work,” Greer said. “This is a tough loss to swallow, but hopefully we'll get another crack at E'Town in the post-season.”
