PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team stayed perfect in conference play Saturday, taking down the visiting Central Michigan Chippewas 20-10 at Joe Walton Stadium on Super Senior Day.
The victory extended RMU's home win streak to 16 games and kept the Colonials atop the MAC Conference standings at 7-0 and 11-2 overall.
Melanie and Mackenzie Gandy combined for nine goals on the day while Melanie became the program's all-time leader in assists with her 95th career helper in the win.
"Talk about a group of seniors that took our program to a whole new place, that's this group of girls," head coach Katrina Silva said. "We said when they came in that we were going to take this big class and they would forever put us in a different place, and that's exactly what they did."
Central Michigan took advantage of an early bout of momentum, getting a couple of big stops on defense before quick goals from Natalie Karlen and Maggie Diebold allowed the Chippewas to go up 2-0 just four minutes in.
Despite the early deficit, the Colonials fought back, cutting it to 2-1 after Thalia Zolis converted a free-position attempt at 22:26.
Colleen Tifft potted her tenth of the season just over a minute later as RMU leveled in a highly emotional, back-and fourth first half.
"Here's the thing you know about this class, when the game is on the line, that's when they give me everything they have. We were going to endure their energy and the we were going to do what we've been training to do all year which is run," Silva said.
Though the Chippewas managed to regain a two-goal lead midway through the first, a huge push from the Colonials spurred on by the Gandy twins sent RMU on a 5-0 run to end the half.
After a spinning shot from Melanie bet the CMU keeper low to the ground to make it 5-4, four straight goals from Mackenzie in the last 6:29 of the first half helped the Colonials overcome a slow start and take command of play heading into half number two.
The twins combined to keep the momentum rolling right into the second as Melanie assisted on two more goals from Mackenzie to make it 11-5 just 1:21 into the second as RMU began to separate themselves from the Chippewas.
They would push it 14-5 before CMU found their footing in the second and mounted a pushback of their own.
A 5-1 run for the Chippewas appeared to put RMU briefly on its heels, however five straight goals from five different Colonials including a superb end-to-end fast break from Clio Kerr helped RMU finish the game on a 5-0 run for the 20-10 win.
Fifteen of RMU's twenty goals were scored by fifth-year players on Super Senior Day, led by six from Mackenzie Gandy as the Colonials stayed perfect in MAC play.
"In the second half, you saw things start to break wide open because we've trained and worked our plan from the get-go," Silva said. "Once we got on a roll I didn't want to stop it."
