Grantham, PA – No. 17 Messiah College women's lacrosse finished their regular-season on Saturday with a 16-9 over Lebanon Valley. With a 12-5 overall record, including an umblemished mark in the MAC Commonwealth (8-0) the Falcons will now prepare for the conference tournament this week. The Falcons will play as the No. 1 seed as they're also looking to defend their title from a year ago.
The Falcons will start with a Semifinal match-up on Wednesday against No. 4 seed Albright College at 4:00 p.m.
See below for a quick preview of the tourney.
| Scouting the No. 1 Messiah College Falcons (12-5, 8-0) |
 As mentioned above, the Falcons enter the MAC Commonwealth Tournament thanks to a perfect 8-0 record in conference play. Their closest margin of victory was seven goals, done this past Saturday in their 16-9 win over No. 3 seed Lebanon Valley. In Messiah's other seven conference games their average margin of victory was 12.3 goals. But despite their strong play to this point, the Falcons know that nothing is given in the postseason, and that they'll need to be at their best to earn their second-straight conference title.
A noticeable strength of the Falcons this season is their balanced play on all sides of the field. On the attack Messiah has six players that have scored between 20 and 35 goals, and they have three players with 10 or more assists; on defense Messiah has nine players with double-digit caused turnovers, with just on of them—Emma Hawthorne (25)—having more than 17. The Falcons also have four players with 20-plus draw controls, with both Ida Ehrhardt (49) and Stephanie Athens (41) leading the way.
Jenna Stover (25g, 24a) leads Messiah with 49 points, with Shayna Delaney (35g, 8a), Courtney Wagner (35g, 7a), and Athens (28g, 12a) also at-or-above the 40-point mark. On the defensive end Brooke Gamble (16 CT, 27 GB) and Hawthorne (25 CT, 26 GB) have led the Falcons' defense, with Kathryn Milwicz (10 CT, 26 GB) also supporting both the Falcons' defensive efforts and impressive .868 clear percentage.
As a team Messiah is outscoring opponents 240-121.
Alexa Dipeso has been strong in the cage for Messiah all season, as she all conference goalies with both a 7.60 goals against average and .491 save percentage.
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| Scouting the No. 2 Stevenson University Mustangs (9-8, 7-1) |
 The Mustangs earned the No. 2 thanks to a 9-7 win over Lebanon Valley on Apr. 23. In that game Stevenson led 7-3 at the half, but the Dutchmen came within 8-6 with still 25:23 to play. But just three more goals were tallied between the two teams in what ended up as a Stevenson victory.
Similar to Messiah, the Mustangs are very balanced on the attack. Olivia Monteiro and Brady Heher have each tallied 30 goals, and Monteiro leads the way with 12 assists. Two other players, Carli Bafford (24g, 3a) and Hollie Larrimore (23g, 2a) have tallied 20-plus goals to help Stevenson to a 175-107 advantage in goals this season. Bafford also leasd the team with 56 draw controls.
Shelby Walter leads the defensive effort with 38 caused turnovers and 47 groundballs, and four others have double-digit caused turnovers of their own.
Maggie Lawder has started all 17 games in the cage for Stevenson, and she's earned a 10.84 goals against average and .445 save percentage.
When They Met: Messiah scored eight goals in the first-half and nine more after the break to win 17-5 over their rivals from the south. The defense was the hero for Messiah as they hold Monteiro and Heher to just two goals combined on nine total shots.
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| Scouting the No. 3 Lebanon Valley College Dutchmen (10-6, 6-2) |
 The No. 3-seeded Dutchmen lost to both Stevenson (9-7) and Messiah (16-9) this season, with both of those losses coming in their past three games. In that same stretch they also defeated Albright in overtime by a single goal, 13-12.
Prior to those three decisions the Dutchmen were 5-0 against conference opponents. Emma Jones (50g, 17a) and Sam Boyce (45g, 7a) lead the way with 67 and 52 points, respectively, with Tori Kuntz (38g, 7a) close behind. That three-headed monster has accounted for 76% of the Dutchmen goals in 2016.
Emily Moatz leads a solid defense with 33 caused turnovers, and she's also collected a team-best 43 draw controls. Jones also has 42 draw controls of her own, with Kuntz grabbing 32 more.
In the cage Shelby Morris carries a 9.84 goals against average with a .484 save percentage. She collected 22 saves against Messiah in Saturday's loss, and she reached double-digit save totals in eight different regular-season games.
When They Met: Messiah was leading 7-6 late in the first-half before tallying four-straight goals to end the frame and go up 11-6 entering the break. The final 30 minutes was much closer (5-3 in favor of Messiah) but the Falcons' lead was too much for Lebanon Valley to close.
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| Scouting the No. 4 Albright College Lions (11-6, 5-3) |
 The Lions arrive into the match-up with Messiah by way of a 16-15 win over No. 5 seed Lycoming College in the Quarterfinal game on Monday. In that contest the Lions trailed 9-4 at the half before outscoring the Warriors 12-6 after the break. During the regular-season the Lions' only three losses in the conference came to the other three playoff teams: Messiah, Stevenson, and Lebanon Valley.
Albright is led by two dynamite scorers, Erin Farrell (54g, 17a) and Amanda Smith (53g, 10a). Mariah Cullen is close behind with 45 goals and 16 assists. Together, the three leading scorers for Albright have combined for 60% of the team's goals. Impressively, those three have also combined for 199 draw controls this season, with Cullen's 85 leading the way.
Emily Hutson has strated all 17 games this season, and she holds a 12.43 goals against average and .364 save percentage.
When They Met: Messiah and Albright opened MAC Commonwealth play way back on Apr. 2, with the Falcons winning 16-5. Messiah scored four of the game's first five goals en route to a 8-2 halftime lead. In total, nine different players scored for the Falcons. |
