Loretto, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team hit the road for its only game this weekend as the Colonials took on Saint Francis University on Friday afternoon. A 12-goal first half opened up a nine-goal lead for RMU as the Colonials cruised to a 21-10 victory in which four student-athletes netted at least four goals.
Robert Morris would waste little time as it took the Colonials less than two minutes to find the back of the net as Brittany Byerly (Wexford, Pa. / Pine-Richland) scored the first of her four goals in the contest. After eleven minutes of play, RMU would hold a 3-0 lead as Kristin Yoviene (Easton, Md. / Saints Peter and Paul) and Jessica Rutherford (Pylesville, Md. / North Harford) each started their scoring binges.
After a Red Flash goal would make the score 3-1, the Colonials would score the next four goals to jump out to a six-goal lead. Rutherford would pick up her second goal in a span of less than four minutes before Talia Waskowicz (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) scored the next three goals. Waskowicz's natural hat trick came over a span of 2:11 as Robert Morris held a 7-1 lead with ten minutes remaining in the first half.
The Colonials would close out the first half with five of the final seven goals to hold a 12-3 lead after 30 minutes of play. Saint Francis would pick up its second goal of the game before Byerly answered with her second goal of the half. The Red Flash found the back of the net for a third time in the contest but Robert Morris closed out the half with the final four goals. Rutherford would pick up her second of the game before Emily Jamison (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Hills) recorded her 28th goal of the season. Yoviene would finish the scoring in the half for RMU with the final two goals coming just 16 seconds apart.
Yoviene would score for the fourth time in the game to start the second half before the Red Flash rattled off three-consecutive goals to make the score 13-6 with 22 minutes remaining. Byerly would net her third goal of the game to put an end to the run of goals for Saint Francis but the Red Flash answered just 12 seconds later to stay within striking distance of the Colonials.
In a span of two minutes, Robert Morris would grow its lead to ten goals as Yoviene picked up her fifth goal of the afternoon. Byerly and Waskowicz would each net their fourth goal of the game to make the score 17-7. A Red Flash goal would bring them back within less than ten goals but that would be short lived as three more RMU goals expanded the lead to 12 goals, the largest of the game. Jessica Karwacki (Sparks, Md. / Hereford), Lauren Roberts (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C.W. Baker), and Emily VanDyne (Webster, N.Y. / Webster Thomas) all joined the scoring barrage with their first goals of the contest to make the score 20-8.
After VanDyne's goal with seven minutes remaining, senior Angelina Gasparo (Philadelphia, Pa. / Nazareth Academy) took over between the pipes for Kaitlin Pentz (Sykesville, Md. / Century) who had held the Red Flash to just eight goals. In the final seven minutes, Gasparo would make three saves on the five shots she faced while Rutherford closed out the scoring for Robert Morris with her fourth goal of the day as the final horn sounded with the score 21-10.
Yoviene led all scorers for the Colonials with five goals as Waskowicz and Rutherford both came off the bench as each of the attackers contributed four goals. Pentz and Gasparo combined for six saves in the game while holding an opponent to ten or fewer goals for the seventh time this season.
Coming in to the contest, Karwacki led the nation with an average of 8.77 draw controls per game. Against the Red Flash, RMU would win 24 of the 33 draw controls as Karwacki led the Colonials by controlling 13 draws alone. Robert Morris would also hold the edge in shots (39-18) and ground balls (14-12) as the Colonials converted on eight of their nine free-position attempts.
Robert Morris improved to 8-6 this season and 4-3 against Northeast Conference opponents which keeps the team in the hunt for a playoff position heading in to the final weekend of play. Currently sitting in fifth place, RMU is a half-game behind a pair of teams currently in third place. The two teams in a tie for third place, Bryant and Mount St. Mary's, each have a second game this weekend on Sunday. If either of the two teams suffers a loss, the Colonials will move in to a tie for fourth place.
RMU will look to improve on a 5-1 road record this season as the Colonials finish the regular season with a pair of contests in Connecticut. Robert Morris will first take on Quinnipiac on Friday at 3:00 p.m. before closing out the season with a contest against Sacred Heart on Sunday, April 19 at Noon. A win in either of the two games will tie the program record for wins in a season as the Colonials won nine games during the 2009 season.
