New Britain, Conn. -- Robert Morris University women's lacrosse used a second half surge to lock up a win at Central Connecticut State University on Sunday afternoon. Senior midfielder Dana Davis was one of five Colonials to score two goals, but it was her second that was most significant, reaching 100 goals for her career, just the seventh player to accomplish that feat for Colonials women's lacrosse.

Davis opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game, off an assist from Shannon Lynch. Senior Niki Grillon fed Kerri Sayrafe in front to put the Colonials up 2-0 with a player-up goal at 23:11 of the first half.

Central Connecticut got on the board with a Morgan Sinton goal to cut it to 2-1.

The teams traded possessions for a stretch of nearly ten minutes, holding each other off the board. Clio Kerr broke up the scoreless stretch with a free position goal to make it 3-1 Colonials with 11:58 remaining in the half.

The Blue Devils scored back-to-back goals to tie the game at three apiece with scores by Carson Adelberger and Molly Coogan.

Grillon struck to put Robert Morris ahead 4-3 off a pass from Lynch, but Kylie Sullivan answered for CCSU to tie the game at 4-4 at the halftime break.

The Colonials came out on fire in the second, with Davis firing home her 100th career goal 19 seconds into the half off a pass from Lynch. The Shaler product, Lynch, scored less than a minute later, the second goal in a five-goal streak for RMU. Sophomore Clio Kerr scored a player-up goal just 50 seconds later, also assisted by Lynch. Grillon picked up her second of the game off a dish from Meghan Crouse. Melanie Gandy picked up her first of the game with 21:59 to play, assisted by Lynch.

CCSU's Sinton broke up the second-half shutout RMU had going, to make it a 9-5 game.

But the Gandy goals were far from done. Melanie Gandy picked up her second off another assist from Lynch, before Mackenzie Gandy scored back-to-back goals to cap the scoring. The three consecutive Gandy goals came in a span of 80 seconds.

Sophomore goalkeeper Katelyn Miller made nine saves on the Blue Devils' 14 shots on goal, also collecting four ground balls. Defensively, sophomore Thalia Zolis picked up four ground balls, sophomore Kelly Colegrove had three and sophomore Shea McArdle had two, along with a caused turnover.

Kerr earned 10 draw controls to go with her two goals and also picked up a pair of ground balls and caused two turnovers. That marks back-to-back games with 10 draw control wins for Kerr, a career-high.

Lynch finished with a goal, six assists and two ground balls. The six-assist performance is tied for second-most all-time in the RMU record books, with seven points tying for 11th highest points in a single-game as well.

Davis's 100 career goals match Kara Blakely '09 for 6th all-time in goal-scoring in RMU history, bringing her career points total to 130, which also ranks 6th in the Colonials record books. Davis is the first to reach 100 career goals since the 2016 season, which saw a trio of Colonials add their names to that prestigious list.

"It's been a crazy four years," said Davis of her time at Robert Morris and reaching that milestone. "It's been awesome playing with these teams and I've learned so much from everybody. I wouldn't be able to do it without my team and my coaches."

"It's just a good feeling all around and it was a good win today, so that's exciting."

Davis also spoke of the team's resilience after a rocky first half of the game, outscoring the Blue Devils 8-1 in the second half.

"We know how to battle back," said Davis. "We know how to look at each other and say 'we've got this for each other and we're going to win' and we're not going to stop until we get it done."

Robert Morris (7-8 Overall, 3-2 NEC) has a chance to clinch a Northeast Conference postseason tournament berth with a win next Friday against Sacred Heart, a 3:00 p.m. start on home turf at Joe Walton Stadium. The Colonials will close the regular season at home on Sunday at Noon against LIU Brooklyn, celebrating Senior Day prior to the start of the game.
 

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