SHENANDOAH, Va. - On Tuesday afternoon the Messiah women's lacrosse team earned a 19-10 victory over the Shenandoah Hornets in a non-conference tilt down in Virginia. Nine different Falcons collected points on the afternoon while five collected multiple goals in the victory. Messiah netted seven first-quarter tallies to take an early 7-2 lead after 15 minutes of play before scoring four times in each of the next three quarters to earn the victory.
 
Rachel Delate led the offensive attack with five goals and an assist. Emma Lytle, Hope Flack, and Ehryn Groothoff all scored at least three goals with Amanda Wadsworth connecting on two tallies in the victory.
 
With the win, Messiah moves to 3-2 on the season and will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to St. Mary's of Maryland to take on the Seahawks at 4:00 p.m.
 
How It Happened
The Falcons wasted little time building an early lead with five goals in the first seven minutes and change of the opening quarter. Grace Gormley got the Falcons on the board in the opening minute of play tallies by Emma Lytle and Hope Flack followed just over a minute later. Midway through the period, Rachel Delate scored twice within a minute to push Messiah's first quarter lead up to five with 7:40 remaining in the opening period.
 
Shenandoah tallied twice in the final six minutes of the period, but Hope Flack and Rachel Delate each scored again to keep the Falcons' advantage five goals heading to the second quarter.
 
Messiah's offense kept humming with three-straight goals to start the second quarter to build a 10-2 advantage.
 
After two Hornets' tallies, Emma Lytle ended the half with a goal in the last minute before the break off a feed from Mackenzie Schnur. The late tally gave the Falcons an 11-4 cushion after 30 minutes of play.
 
In the third, Sheandoah found the back of the cage twice, but their two tallies were sandwiched between two Messiah scores on both the front and back end of the period. With Messiah outscoring the Hornets 4-2 to the period, the Falcons took a 15-6 lead into the fourth. Ehryn Groothoff scored twice in the quarter while Emma Lytle and Rachel Delate each connected once.
 
In the fourth, both Messiah and Shenandoah traded tallies, scoring four each in the final stanza. Thanks to their nine-goal lead heading into the period, Messiah was able to earn the sizable victory.
 
Four different goal scorers found the back of the cage in the fourth with Emma Lytle, Amanda Wadsworth, Ehryn Groothoff, and Paige Megargee netting scores.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will be back in action this Thursday when they travel to St. Mary's College of Maryland to take on the Seahawks at 4:00 p.m. in another non-conference contest.