Box Score

The Muhlenberg women's lacrosse team never trailed and held off a late charge to advance to the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Tournament championship game with a historic 17-13 win against Marymount.

The win, the first in a postseason game in program history, gave the Mules a record 12 wins on the season. The had been tied with the 2008 team, which won 11, for the last three weeks.

The Mules (12-5) will play Stockton (13-5), a 9-6 winner against Lebanon Valley in the second semifinal, in the championship game.

Senior Casey Armstrong scored a game-high five goals for her ninth hat trick of the season. Freshman Amanda Tullo and junior Stephanie D'Ascoli netted three goals apiece, and junior Kelsey Nagle tied a career high with six assists.

Despite not having played in two weeks, facing a Saints team that won its ECAC first-round game 19-5 just three days earlier and starting a makeshift lineup that included four players making their first career start, Muhlenberg jumped out of the gates quickly, taking a 2-0 lead in the first 77 seconds on goals by Tullo and one of the first-time starters, freshman Emily Tedesco.

Marymount (10-9) rallied to tie the game at 3-all, but the Mules responded with a 6-0 run in a span of less than seven minutes. Armstrong scored the final two goals of the run, which also featured the first career goal for freshman Caroline Dolan.

Nagle gave the Mules some momentum heading into halftime when she picked off an attempted clearing pass by the Marymount goalie and fed D'Ascoli for a goal that made it 12-7 with 12.3 seconds left in the first half.

Armstrong's free position goal 10:25 into the second half gave Muhlenberg a six-goal lead against at 13-7, but the Saints scored the next three to cut the margin in half.

Marymount eventually got to within two goals, at 15-13, with 5:45 remaining. Sophomore Jordy Bonvini won the ensuing draw, and the Mules played keepaway, holding the ball for the next four minutes. When the Saints finally got the ball back, junior Alli April forced a turnover before they could set their offense up, and last-minute goals by Armstrong and sophomore Eliza Clark sealed the win.

Junior Sara Allison recorded eight saves, including two on back-to-back shots in the second half as the Saints were making their run.

In addition to notching her first career points on two goals and an assist, Dolan finished with 10 draw controls, becoming only the fourth different player in program history to reach double figures in a game.

Senior Rachel Pedersen picked up a game-high five ground balls, and senior Arielle Sherman (pictured above) scored her 25th career goal.

The second game had a much different scoring pace. Stockton squandered a 5-2 halftime lead before scoring four times in the last 12:33 to secure the win. The Ospreys have four opponents in common with the Mules:

Drew: Muhlenberg won 15-6, Stockton won 11-7
Lebanon Valley: Muhlenberg won 18-11, Stockton won 9-6
Montclair State: Muhlenberg won 11-7, Stockton lost 17-6
St. Joseph's (L.I.): Muhlenberg won 18-7, Stockton won 7-6 in overtime