GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's lacrosse team held off Stevenson University this afternoon winning by a score of 10-7. Courtney Wagner led the team with five goals and Jamie Bishop had two in the game. This was a grid-lock style game as both teams had 23 shots and 16 shots on goal. Messiah led in draw controls (10-9) as Audrey Liberati had five and Kendra Herbenar collected four in the game.

The Falcons were quick to get on the board as Jamie Bishop scored a goal just 44 seconds into the contest with Courtney Wagner providing the assist. The Mustangs tied things up not long after as Kiely Bunce tallied at the 29:06 mark. After earning an assist, it was time Wagner scored a goal and she did at the 27:43 mark as Jess Hatch assisted her in the action.
 
 Six minutes later Messiah struck again as Abby Howard scored her 14^th goal of the season to extend the lead 3-1. Another scoring drought went by although Messiah had a chance to score when Howard earned a free position shot at 14:28 but Stevenson made a nice defensive play and then ended up scoring a few minutes later to cut the lead 3-2.
 
This first half provided a lot of goals traded back-and-forth with Wagner finding the back of the net again with 11:17 left in the half and Dana Stevens scoring for Stevenson with 9:15 remaining. Goal number five the Falcons came from Annika Johnsen, after Kendra Herbenar won the draw control, as the lead increased to 5-3, and then Jamie Bishop scored again with 5:24 in the half to make the score 6-3. The Mustangs added one more goal of their own with about two minutes to go and the Falcons had a couple opportunities but couldn't capitalize and the score was 6-4 at the break.
 
With tensions high from a close first half, Stevenson scored first off a free position goal as they pulled within one 6-5. About a minute later Messiah had a response as Courtney Wagner earned a free position shot opportunity and capitalized to make the score 7-5. The Mustangs kept fighting and scored two-straight goals as they game was tied 7-7 with 18:03 left to play.
 
The Falcons stayed composed, however, and Eliza Lortie came through with a goal off an assist by Johnsen to put Messiah back on top 8-7. Wagner, who had the strong stick all game, scored again two minutes later to increase the lead 9-7. Stevenson had chances as they earned two free position shots but goalie Jessie Lissner came up big with a couple saves to stifle their opportunities.
 
The final goal of the game again came from Courtney Wagner with 7:20 left to play as Messiah went on to win this game 10-7. With the win Messiah moves to 10-3 on the year and 5-0 in the conference and they will be back in action Wednesday Apr. 18 as they travel to Hood College for a 4:00 p.m. contest.