Box Score PHILADELPHIA – Liz Mower (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) and Lauren Hartman (Sewell, N.J./Our Lady of Mercy Academy) combined for 13 points to lead the Philadelphia University women's lacrosse team in a 20-11 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament opening round win over Dominican (N.Y.) Tuesday afternoon on Ravenhill Field.
Philadelphia improves to 10-7 and has a semifinal round date with No. 2 seed and tournament host Georgian Court on Saturday, April 25 at 2:30 p.m. During the regular season, the Rams were defeated by the Lions, 10-9, on March 25 in Lakewood, N.J.
Dominican finishes the season at 4-11.
Mower paced the Rams with a team-high seven points (five goals, two assists), four ground balls, and two draw controls. After missing the entire first half due to class, Hartman made up for lost time in the second half, scoring five times and dishing out one assist. Hartman's final goal, coming with 2:39 left in the match, was the 100th of her career.
Elizabeth Marrosu (Flemington, N.J./Immaculata) added three goals.
Despite falling behind just 32 seconds into the match on a Gina Sparaco goal, the Rams grabbed the momentum with goals from Corrine Etter (Millville, N.J./Millville), Isabella DiGnazio (Pittsburgh, Pa./Peters Twp.), Marrosu, and Elizabeth Seitzinger (Schnecksville, Pa./Parkland) in a 2:48 span to own a 4-1 advantage.
After Allison Smithwick—who had five goals and three assists for Dominican—pulled the Chargers within 5-3, the Rams went on another 4-0 run with goals by Marrosu, Etter, Alyssa Matthews (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury), and Mower to extend the gap to 9-3 with 14:03 left in the first half. Mower closed out the first half with her 49th and 50th goals of the season to give Philadelphia a 12-5 halftime advantage.
Philadelphia's strong play carried over to the start of the second half, scoring four of the first five goals to take its first double-digit lead of the afternoon (16-6) on a Kathryn Avanzato (Lake Grove, N.Y./Sachem North) goal with 14:04 remaining. Hartman scored her first two goals of the match during the run, while Mower got it started with her fifth and final score.
The Rams' lead was trimmed to 18-10 on Smithwick's final goal of the match, coming with 6:38 left.
Felician Branagan (Millville, N.J./Millville) stopped seven shots in the Philadelphia goal for her sixth win of the year (6-1). Dominican's Brittany Kiernan made nine saves in a losing effort.
The Rams outshot the Chargers 37-24, 23-7 in the opening 30 minutes.
