ROCHESTER, Ny. - The No. 12 Messiah women's lacrosse team fell to No. 15 Wesleyan University this afternoon in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, 13-10. It was a close game throughout as the two teams were pretty evenly matched and separated by just two scores, 7-5 in Wesleyan's favor, at the halftime break. The Falcons did all they could to even up the playing field in the second half, even tying the score at one point, but the Cardinals held on to win 13-10.

The Falcons got on the board first when Kendra Herbenar picked up the ground ball and then ending up scoring not long after at the 29:34 mark. The Cardinals managed to tie it up 1-1 a few minutes later and then scored two unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead. After a timeout was taken by Messiah, Courtney Wagner came out and found the back of the net. However, Wesleyan scored just 15 seconds later on a free position shot to go ahead 4-2.

The Cardinals scored two more goals to gain their biggest lead of the game of 6-2 with about 15 minutes left in the half. Eliza Lortie won a draw control and then Mckenna Edwards notched a goal off an assist by Wagner to cut into the Cardinal lead. After a scoring drought, Messiah pulled within two as Annika Johnsen scored off a free position shot with 4:23 remaining in the opening half. Both teams went on to add one more goal to their totals and the score was 7-5 in favor of Wesleyan at the break.

Messiah came out strong in the second half, putting in the first goal at the 28:08 mark as Courtney Wagner scored her second goal of the contest. After the Cardinals scored, Abby Howard put one through for the Falcons off a free position shot and the score was 8-7 with 25:40 to play. Trailing 9-7, a potential momentum shift came as the Falcons scored two goals within 20 seconds off each other to tie the game at nine apiece.

Wesleyan took the lead again with just under 16 minutes left in the game and then added three more goals to build a four-goal lead of 13-9. Messiah had a couple opportunities but didn't capitialize until Johnsen scored her third goal of the game with 1:11 left to make the score 13-10, which ended up being the final score.

Messiah finished the year with a record of 15-4 and captured their fourth-straight MAC Commonwealth title to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in program history.