Moon Township, Pa. – Scoring a season high in goals, the Colonials captured a dominating victory over Eastern Michigan on Wednesday afternoon in Mid-American Conference (MAC) action at Joe Walton Stadium.

With the win, the Robert Morris women's lacrosse team improves to 5-1 in conference play, with a 7-8 overall record. Meanwhile, the Eagles fall to 1-12 overall while sitting 0-5 in league action.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
It was a defensive slugfest for the first 15 minutes as the Colonials held a 2-1 advantage after the opening frame. Graduate student Kelsey Nelson opened the scoring for RMU after taking a feed from senior Julia Koterwas. Eastern Michigan would respond with a score before Koterwas found sophomore Jenna Irwin, who found the back of the net to regain the lead for the Colonials. In the second quarter it was all RMU as they rattled off six consecutive scores to give them an 8-1 lead. Koterwas started the streak with her first score of the afternoon before graduate student Emilie Kim and senior Colleen Tifft netted goals. After a four-minute scoring drought, graduate student Bailey Christianson took a pass from Irwin to net her first goal of the game before junior Gia Anthony and Koterwas both registered goals to cap the run. The Eagles responded with a score right before the half as RMU held an 8-2 advantage at the break.

In the second half, the Colonials continued to hit on all cylinders as they netted three straight scores to begin the third quarter. Christianson found the back of the net from inside the circle before setting up Chelsea Coleman for a score at the 10:40 mark. Junior Lilli Hadden capped the streak as she executed a free position shot, 11-2 RMU. The two squads mirrored each other with each team netting two scores in the final 3:45 as the Colonials held a 13-4 lead after three. In the final frame, six different players found the back of the net for RMU as Hadden, Kim, and Irwin all tallied their second scores.

FIRST FOR EVERYTHING
A trio of Colonials netted their first career goals this afternoon against the Eagles. In the third quarter, sophomore Lizzie Paterno took a pass from Koterwas and beat goalkeeper Giuliana Ditsky at the 2:42 mark. In the final frame, classmate Amanda Dolis found the back of the net for her first career marker before freshman Eliana LaMange joined the group, registering her first career tally at the 1:52 mark. A pair of RMU players recorded their first offensive statistics of the season. Emilie Kim carded her first two scores of the season while junior Mackenzie Bell netted her first goal of the year.

QUOTABLE
"I'm proud of them," head coach Katrina Silva said. "Sometimes when they've got in games they haven't understood that what I do in practice, directly reflects to the game field so they'll pass the ball off instead of taking it themselves. Today, we had more confidence and did what we were supposed to do. I'm very proud and I love this group."

OFFENSE IS SIZZLING
RMU scored a season-high 19 goals on the afternoon while 13 players found the back of the net. Julia Koterwas paced the Colonials with five points, tying her career-high with three assists while carding two goals. Jenna Irwin finished with four points, tallying two goals and two assists while collecting two draw controls, two ground balls and a caused turnover. Colleen Tifft, Bailey Christianson and Lilli Hadden all finished with two goals and one assist while Chelsea Coleman totaled two assists and one score during the win. Coleman also posted a career-high seven draw controls while collecting a round ball. Kelsey Nelson and Emilie Kim both finished with a pair of points while Nelson tallied three ground balls and a draw control. Gia Anthony finished with a goal while Mackenzie Bell finished with a season-high four ground balls, three caused turnovers, and two ground balls while also finding the back of the net. Along with Coleman, senior Jordan Anderson was dominant in the circle, collecting six draw controls and one ground ball.

Between the pipes, graduate student goalkeeper Jamie Keller ended the afternoon with seven saves on 18 shots faced while posting a .538 saves percentage.  

QUOTABLE
"That's the kind of performance defensively that we need every game," Silva continued. "We had a slight lapse in the third quarter giving up a few but winning the draw, pushing the fast break, Mackenzie Bell getting a goal and the newcomers getting a goal that's exactly what we expected."

UP NEXT
The Colonials return to action on Wednesday, April 26, when they travel to Akron for a MAC contest, beginning at 5:00 p.m. at InfoCision Stadium.

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