Box Score
Annville, PA - Annville, PA - Coming off an
emotional loss to Catholic University last week, the Messiah College Falcons traveled to Lebanon Valley College on Thursday to start the Commonwealth portion of their schedule. The Falcons, defending conference champions from a year ago, picked up where they left off in the league with a 16-11 win over the Dutchmen.
Sophomore
Lizzy Keeney, junior
Cecilia Kjellman, and senior
Meghan Doolittle each scored four goals apiece for Messiah, who was playing without
the program's all-time leading goals and points leader,
Rachel Dirksen.
“Lebanon Valley is a team that has made significant improvements in a short period of time,” Messiah head coach
Heather Greer said. “We needed to play well today, and we ended up with just enough.”
The game started slowly for the Falcons, as they fell behind 3-1 less than nine minutes into the contest. Undeterred, Messiah finished the half by outscoring LVC 9-3 to take a 10-6 halftime lead. Doolittle scored all four of her goals in the first frame, collecting a number of quick, one-touch shots on the Dutchmen cage.
“We really needed 'Doo' today,” said Greer, reflecting on her team's need to cover for Dirksen, who was on the sidelines following a red card in the Catholic game. “She had great second- and third-efforts that made a big difference.”
While it may seem that offense was the primary reason for the Falcons' rebound, the team's defense should not be overlooked. Perhaps most notably, Messiah was able to shut down the Dutchmen's leading goal scorer Hana Krechel. Krechel scored three goals in the first half—bringing her season total to 42— before being kept out of the net in the final 30:00.
“Our fundamentals weren't sharp today,” Greer continued. “We identified a number of areas in which we need to make improvements. Thankfully, we did start to play with more aggressiveness—especially on the defensive end.”
Greer was quick to point to the effort of freshman
Becky Ely, whose clean defense and effort in the midfield was indicative of the team's balanced effort. Following suit was junior
Taylor Phillips, who played every minute and collected seven saves.
The Falcons' defense was especially productive when preventing free-position scores, as LVC was held to just 3-9 on such attempts.
The Falcons sealed the win in a pivotal stretch of the second half, scoring four consecutive goals from the 12:59 mark to the 3:54 mark. Two of the goals were scored by Kjellman, with Keeney and senior
Rachel Coyle combining for the other pair. Keeney scored three of her four goals in the final frame.
Messiah, ranked #10 in the most recent IWLCA Top 20 poll, moves to 8-2 on the season. Lebanon Valley falls to 5-5, 0-1 in the Commonwealth.
“We're still trying to play good, clean lacrosse every time out,” Greer said. “We know that if we focus on the fundamentals from start to finish, we can be a tough match-up for anyone on the other side of the field.”
The Falcons will next play on Tuesday, April 10, when they host Elizabethtown College for a 4:00 p.m. start.
