Grantham, PA - No. 12 Messiah women's lacrosse built an 11-1 halftime lead and never looked back in a 17-3 win over Hood College on Wednesday afternoon. Allie Colson tallied four times for the Falcons and Claire Stikeleather scored three times herself in the convincing decision.

The win pushed Messiah to 6-2 overall, and also 2-0 in the MAC Commonwealth. Hood fell to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
 
Fast Start
Messiah scored the first seven goals of the game, and six of those tallies came in the first eight minutes alone. Stikeleather tallied twice to open the run, and Colson followed with back-to-back goals in a span of 61 seconds to make it 4-0. After Courtney Wagner made it 5-0 at the 25:36 mark, Colson scored again for the first-half hat trick.
 
Jade Locklear scored for Hood to get them on the board at the 8:49 mark of the period, but four more goals, including two from Jamie Bishop, had the Falcons up by 10 at the break.
 
Second-Half Flyaway
Messiah played with a running clock for the entire second period, and they also scored four-straight to open the frame and grab hold of the game. Stikeleather again opened the period with a goal, giving her nine tallies in the past three games alone. Jenna Stover, the Falcons' leading scorer on the season, also tallied in the opening stretch of the second-half to help Messiah put up eight unanswered goals across the two periods.
 
Messiah led 15-1 when Rachel Slater scored for Hood at the 19:25 mark, and the Falcons soon finished with a 17-3 win.
 
In the Box
Eleven different Falcons collected a point, and five different players scored multiple times. Stephanie Athens handed out five assists, becoming the 12th player in program history to reach that mark in the single game.
 
Kathryn Milwicz led the Falcons' defense with a game-high four caused turnovers, and Messiah caused 11 giveaway as a team. Alexa Dipeso grabbed five saves and Amber Orner collected a single stop across the entire second period.
 
Next Up
The Falcons continue conference play on Saturday when they travel to Albright to take on the Lions at 1:00 p.m. Albright defeated Lycoming by a 15-9 score this afternoon and is 5-4 overall with a 1-0 mark in the conference.