The Muhlenberg women's basketball team built an early lead and held on to beat Dickinson 56-51 in a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference semifinal.
 
Muhlenberg moves on to its ninth Centennial Conference championship game in the last 12 years with the victory. The Mules will face Gettysburg, who defeated host Haverford in the first semifinal, in Saturday's championship game scheduled for 4:00. Muhlenberg is 3-1 against the Bullets in the CC playoffs, including a 75-70 win in the 2008 championship.
 
The Mules (19-7) jumped out to a 17-8 advantage after one quarter, but the Red Devils (18-8) brought the margin down to four at halftime. Muhlenberg grinded it out the second half and forced 10 of Dickinson's 17 turnovers in the latter half, including eight in the final period.
 
Junior Brandi Vallely recorded her sixth double-double of the season, leading the Mules with 20 points and 11 rebounds. She made all four of her steals in the final period as well, which moved her into ninth place for career steals (173) in school history.
 
Junior Chelsea Gary added eight points, eight rebounds and three assists while junior Rachel Plotke also chipped in eight points. Senior Maggie Zerbe collected seven rebounds to go with five points.
 
Muhlenberg played strong out of the gate, going on an 11-0 run over a six-minute stretch to build a 15-3 lead. The Mules made it 17-4 on a Gary feed to junior Jess Voltaggio, but Dickinson scored the next seven points to climb within six.
 
The Red Devils cut the deficit to three with 2:28 left in the first half, but Vallely (pictured above) hit a three-pointer from the top of the key and then assisted a Carley Hamilton layup on the next possession, giving the Mules a 24-16 advantage. Dickinson however closed the half scoring the final four points to make it 24-20 at halftime.
 
Muhlenberg again increased the margin to double digits in the third period, with junior Christina Manning swishing a baseline jumper to provide Muhlenberg its largest lead of the game at 36-22. The Red Devils rallied back to within five of the Mules, who entered the final period leading 39-32 and scored the first five points of the fourth with a Gary layup and Plotke three-pointer to go back up by 12. Dickinson could not drop the deficit lower than six the rest of the way and Muhlenberg closed the game making five-of-six free throws in the final minute.
 
The Mule defense held Dickinson to 29.3 percent shooting in the game and the offense only turned the ball over eight times. Muhlenberg scored 19 points off Dickinson's 17 turnovers.
 
Muhlenberg is now 23-13 overall in the CC playoffs, which is the most wins for any CC team, and has a 14-7 record in the semifinals. The Mules improved to 5-2 against Dickinson in the CC playoffs, having won each of the last four meetings. Muhlenberg will be seeking its conference-record 10th CC championship and the first-ever "three-peat" in conference history.