Moon Township, Pa. - Robert Morris University women's lacrosse nearly shut out St. Bonaventure in the second half, dominating possession in an 11-6 win over the Bonnies for RMU's first win on the Joe Walton Stadium turf, Sunday afternoon.

The Colonials worked for 38 ground balls, setting the second-highest mark in program history with the effort. Sophomore Thalia Zolis and senior Niki Grillon led the way with 6 and 5 ground balls, respectively. Zolis also won three draw controls and caused a turnover, while Grillon caused a pair of turnovers.

The outcome of that pursuit of ground balls, combined with a seven-save performance by sophomore goalkeeper Katelyn Miller, was shutting out the Bonnies for a stretch of 29:38, the entire second half, until a goal with 22 seconds remaining. Five of Miller's seven saves came in the second half, posting a door-slamming stop on Bonnies' attacker Ashley Easterday with 2:20 left in the game. 

Juniors Kerri Sayrafe and Shannon Lynch led the RMU offense with a pair of hat tricks -- the first career hat trick for lynch -- who added a dish on a Sayrafe goal to tie a game-high mark of four points. Sophomore Melanie Gandy scored a goal and dealt three assists for a four-point afternoon. Senior Dana Davis and junior Sophia Eureka each scored twice as well.

In addition to Zolis and Grillon, five other Colonials collected three ground balls, including Davis, Eureka, Gandy, Madison Griffin and Madison Burke. The sophomore defender, Burke, had four caused turnovers, on top of the three ground balls. Davis also led RMU on the draw, winning five draw controls.

After St. Bonaventure scored the first two goals of the game, Robert Morris rallied to take a 3-2 lead with 22:04 to play in the first half. Sayrafe scored her fourth of the season before Eureka tallied her ninth, assisted by Gandy. Davis caused a Bonnies turnover, picked up the ground ball and raced to the Colonials end of the field, where RMU worked the clock looking for the right shot, and Davis took it, propelling the Colonials to their first lead of the game.

St. Bonaventure tied the game 3-3 and Miller kept it that way while RMU killed off a player-down situation for the full two minutes, making a save on Julia Davidson to hold the Bonnies off the board.

RMU rattled off three more goals, punctuated by a rocket from Davis to give the Colonials a 6-3 lead with 4:32 to play in the half, her eighth of the season. Lynch scored her first of the game to regain the lead for Robert Morris, before Sayrafe added her second of the afternoon. Davis' laser from near the eight-meter blasted part SBU's Morgan Conroy, who did finish the game making 17 saves on the Colonials 28 shots on goal. 

The Bonnies added a pair before the half came to a close, including one that may have come after. Rylee Arnold fired a shot that may have come after the halftime horn sounded, but was deemed a goal by officials, and RMU took a 6-5 margin on the scoreboard into the break.



Eureka put home her second of the game and team-leading tenth goal of the season, just 1:15 into the second half, and it would prove to be the game-winning goal. RMU outscored St. Bonaventure 5-1 in the second half. Gandy earned her third assist of the day on Lynch's second, before scoring one of her own to cap a four-point day with a goal and three assists. Freshman Kelley Flynn assisted Gandy's goal.

Sayrafe completed her hat trick with 12:55 to play, doubling her season total with three goals on the day, six for the year, Lynch dishing a pretty pass to set up the strike. Lynch followed it up with her hat trick goal less than two minutes later, to cap RMU's scoring at 11 goals with 11:05 left to play.

The Colonials continued to keep the pressure on the Bonnies despite the 11-5 lead, preventing a Bonnies goal until Easterday's tally with 22 seconds left to close it out at 11-6.

Robert Morris picked up its first home win of the season after a pair of narrow defeats in the opening two games. The Colonials (3-5) host the highly touted Louisville program next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. on home turf at Joe Walton Stadium in Moon Township, Pa.


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