George Washington University

April 17, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Despite grabbing a four-goal lead early in the first half, the George Washington women's lacrosse team dropped an 11-8 decision at Saint Joseph's Friday afternoon. The Colonials can still clinch a berth in the Atlantic 10 Championship in their regular-season finale against La Salle Sunday.

GW (4-11) falls into a fourth-place tie with Duquesne in the A-10 standings with a 3-3 league mark as a result of the Dukes' 15-14 upset victory at Massachusetts Friday. The Colonials host the Explorers for Senior Day at Mount Vernon Sunday at 1:00 pm and a victory would clinch the fourth and final playoff spot. However, a loss and GW would need a Duquesne loss at home against Temple to secure an A-10 Championship bid. SJU (9-6, 5-1 A-10) moved into a tie for first in the A-10 with the victory.

Freshman Sarah Phillips matched a career-high with five points on three goals and two assists, followed by two goals from rookie Megan Seidman.

The Colonials jumped out to a 5-1 lead behind two goals and an assist from Phillips. However, Helene Tursi helped the Hawks take control from that point, scoring three goals and assisting another during a four-goal run that tied the game at 5-5. Tursi finished with a game-high five points on four goals and an assist.

GW briefly regained the lead, 6-5, as Phillips assisted junior Mia Breheny, but Saint Joseph's netted five unanswered goals to close the period and lead 10-6 at halftime.

The second half proved to be a defensive struggle as the Colonials limited the Hawks to a single goal, but managed to score only two the final 30 minutes, including a meaningless tally with 33 seconds to play, for the 11-8 final.

Junior leading scorer Taylor Donohue assisted Seidman to close within 10-7 just over a minute into the second half, but neither team would score for nearly 20 minutes until the Hawks reopened a four-goal margin on Jenna Martino's third goal with 8:37 remaining. Donohue assisted Phillips in the final minute for her 24th assist of the season, one shy of equaling Laura Hostetler's single-season mark of 25 set in 2005.

Senior Katie Lilly, who climbed into a tie for second at GW with her 65th career start, had a game-high four draw controls and four caused turnovers and added three ground balls. Sophomore goalkeeper Liz Hoffman made seven stops on 30 shots faced, while counterpart Suzy Herlihy turned away four of 14 shots faced.

Along with being outshot 30-14, the Colonials struggled with 22 turnovers, 19 of which were forced, and converted just 13-of-22 clearing attempts.

GW has won its last five meetings against La Salle and will seek its third A-10 Championship berth in the program's eight seasons, first since 2007.