Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Army West Point
Bison Ride Fast Start to 19-9 Win over Army West Point
3/26/2016 4:28:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell women's lacrosse squad jumped out to a 9-0 lead just 11:33 into the contest and cruised to a 19-9 Patriot League victory over Army West Point on Saturday at sunny Graham Field. Huge games from Gretchen Richter and Maddy Molinari along with a 12-save performance from freshman goalie Jamie DeWitt helped the Bison improve to 7-3 overall and 1-1 in the Patriot League.
Richter stuffed the stat sheet with six goals, two assists, nine draw controls, two ground balls and two caused turnovers. She set career highs for goals and points, and she missed her personal best for draw controls by one. Molinari had a hand in nine of Bucknell's goals, scoring four times herself while assisting on five others. She surpassed her career highs in both assists and points in a game.
The Bison also received multi-point efforts from Christina Manis (2G, 3A), Emily Becker (2G, 2A), Audrey Walsh (2G, 1A), Sam Rickels (2G), Eve Lukowski (2A) and Mary Margaret Kenney (1G, 1A). Rickels added six draw controls to help Bucknell dominate time of possession.
DeWitt was coming off a career-high 13-save performance in last week's loss to Boston University, and she added 12 more in this one despite seeing very little action during the first part of the game. She had seven saves in the first half and five more in the second against a Black Knights squad that came in leading the Patriot League in shooting percentage (.512).
Bucknell won 10 of the game's first 11 draw controls and 19 of 30 in the match. The Bison had nearly all of the possession in the first 12 minutes of the contest, piling up goal after goal at an alarming rate.
Becker opened the scoring off a Richter feed 2:39 into the game, and just 2:14 later it was already 5-0 with five different goal-scorers. By the time the freshman Walsh scored her second goal of the season it was a 9-0 rout with still 18:27 on the first-half clock.
Eight of those goals came with assists, as the Bison were able to pick out cutters in front of the cage. Bucknell came into the game leading the nation in assists per game with 8.9 per game, and it had 16 assists on 19 goals in this one.
Army West Point (5-5, 0-2 PL), which came into the game with a winning record in its first varsity season, worked hard to get back into the game. The Black Knights scored three of the final four goals of the first half and then two of the first three in the second half to close within 11-5.
With Army now owning the momentum, Bucknell nearly turned the ball over but Kenney made a great play to hustle down a loose ball on the end line. Two passes later Richter put the ball in the back of the net. That would be the first of three straight Richter goals as part of a 4-0 run that put the Bison back in control of the game. Walsh's second of the day made it 15-5 with 17:56 remaining.
Manuela Cortes, who had a hat trick for Army, scored twice as part of a 3-0 run to get the Black Knights within 15-8, but again the Bison responded, this time with consecutive goals by Kenney, Molinari and Becker.
Bucknell has led the nation in scoring for much of the season before dipping to ninth after three straight single-digit totals. But this marked the fifth time this season the Bison have scored 16 or more goals in a game, and they now have 141 in 10 games, already surpassing last season's total of 139 in 15 games. This was the team's most goals in a league game since a 20-11 win over Lafayette in 2008.
Lukowski (21) and Manis (20) have already reached the 20-assist mark, putting them eighth and ninth, respectively, on Bucknell's all-time single-season chart.
Richter, only a sophomore, moved up one spot into fourth place on Bucknell's career draw controls list with 124.
Bucknell finished with a 33-27 edge in shots and a 14-13 lead in ground balls. Both teams turned the ball over 16 times, with most of Army's miscues coming in transition. Bucknell's ride limited the Black Knights to 9-for-17 clearing efficiency.
The Bison travel to Lafayette on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. before returning home on Saturday to face Holy Cross at 1 p.m.
