Box Score
Grantham, PA -
Cecilia Kjellman scored five goals and handed out three assists to lead Messiah College to a 15-12 victory over Lebanon Valley. She scored the game's first two goals as the Falcons built an early lead, and collected three more scores later in the game as Messiah moved to 5-1 in the Commonwealth.
The win also breaks a tie for second place in the conference, with No. 14 Messiah keeping pace behind Stevenson. The Mustangs moved to 6-0 on Saturday with the Falcons and remain the only conference opponent to beat Messiah this season. Lebanon Valley is now in third at 4-2.
The Falcons came out of the gate quickly off the stick of Kjellman, with
Emily Mumford finding the dynamic midfielder on her run over the midfield mark. Kjellman received the pass and went straight to the goal to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead at the 24:21 mark.
Twenty seconds later, Kjellman scored again (unassisted) as Messiah was on their way to a 3-0 lead. Lebanon Valley did answer the Falcons' strong start behind leading scorer Hana Krechel who tallied twice in a 4-2 run for the Dutchmen to make it 5-4.
Messiah would tally once more before the break by way of a free position score from Kjellman to take a 6-4 lead into the half.
The Falcons' first-half lead was a built on the back of consistent possession and care with the ball; Messiah was perfect on 10 clear opportunities and turned the ball over just six times in the first 30 minutes. Still, the Falcons held just a two-goal advantage.
All that would quickly change when the game restarted. Four different Falcons—
Kiersten McGreer, Kjellman, Keeney, and Carl Bajus—scored in the first 3:52 of the second-half to push Messiah's lead to 10-4.
A Lebanon Valley timeout proved to settle things down at that point, as the teams battled through more than seven minutes of scoreless play. The Dutchmen broke that streak with just under 19 minutes remaining, doing so by scoring four-straight goals of their own to cut the Messiah lead to 10-8. Sam Boyce tallied the final two scores of that run, muscling her way through the Falcons' defense each time.
Though Messiah's lead seemed delicate, the Falcons never wavered.
Madi Brunk and Keeney each scored in a 22-second stretch with less than 12 minutes to play to reestablish control and, after Lebanon Valley fought back to within 12-10, Messiah scored three of the game's final five goals to finish with the win.
Keeny scored the Falcons' final goal of an assist from Kjellman, putting the hosts up 15-11 with just 1:24 left to play.
Keeney finished with four goals to bring her team-leading total to 45, while
Gabrielle Hamelryck added three assists. Messiah finished with an impressive 16-17 showing on clear opportunities and collected 18 of the game's 29 draw controls.
Taylor Phillips collected eight saves in the cage for Messiah to back up a strong defensive effort by her team.
The Falcons move to 8-6 overall with the win, with Lebanon Valley falling to 9-3. Messiah will next play at Albright College on Tuesday, Apr. 23 in the second-to-last game of the regular-season.
WLAX: Messiah Takes Down Lebanon Valley Gallery
