Bucknell University Athletics
Important Week Ahead for Women's Lax
3/29/2016 3:51:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
Bucknell vs. Lafayette: Watch Live | Live Stats
Bucknell vs. Holy Cross: Watch Live | Live Stats
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell women's lacrosse team evened its Patriot League record at 1-1 with a 19-9 victory over Army West Point on Saturday, and now the Bison will look to make a move up the conference standings with a pair of key matches on tap this week. Bucknell travels to Lafayette on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., then returns home to host Holy Cross on Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games will stream live on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV.
Bucknell is now 7-3 overall after the convincing win over the Black Knights. The Bison scored nine times in the first 11:33 to take early control of that game. A dominant performance in the draw circle helped lead to the 19-goal output. Gretchen Richter, this week's Patriot League Midfielder of the Week, logged nine draw controls to go with six goals and two assists, and Sam Rickels added six more draw controls.
All told, Bucknell collected 19 of the game's 30 draws, and on the season the Bison have built up a 147-104 adantage for a 58.6 percent success rate. The team's 14.7 DCs per game is the most in the Patriot League and fifth-most among all 110 Division I teams. Richter leads the league in draw controls per game (4.0).
After three straight games scoring in single digits, the Bison pumped in 19 more goals on Saturday, giving them 141 on the season. They have already surpassed last year's total with at least seven games remaining on the 2016 schedule. The 14.1 goals per game is the fourth-highest average in the country, trailing only USC (16.2), Notre Dame (16.1) and Maryland (15.4).
Bucknell also continues to lead the nation in assists with 9.6 per game. The next-highest average is Notre Dame at 8.6. The Bison have had assists on 68.1 percent of their goals (96 of 141) this season, including 16 of 19 in the Army game last weekend.
There are currently eight 30-point scorers in the Patriot League, and Bucknell has five of them: Maddy Molinari (27-15-42), Eve Lukowski (21-21-42), Christina Manis (16-20-36), Emily Becker (22-8-30) and Richter (20-10-30). Molinari, who is coming off a nine-point showing against Army, and Lukowski are tied for third in the Patriot League in points per game; Molinari is third in goals per game; and Lukowski and Manis rank 2-3 in assists per game.
Bucknell was on-point defensively for much of the day against Army, keeping the Black Knights off the board for the game's first 22:44. Freshman goalie Jamie DeWitt finished with 12 saves, one shy of her season high, upping her season save percentage to .472.
Annie Gilbertson continues to lead the team in ground balls (26) and caused turnovers (16), and fellow defenders Lucia Smircich, Rennie Tankersley and Katherine Doyle have also been strong in front of DeWitt.
On Wednesday the Bison face a Lafayette team that is 4-5 overall and 1-1 in the Patriot League. The Leopards also routed Army (17-4) before falling to Colgate 13-11 over the weekend.
Lafayette features one of the Patriot League's best players in junior Kirsten Wilhemsen, who currently leads the conference with 31 goals. Wilhemsen, who had 47 goals a year ago, has recorded at least three points in every game this season.
Goalie Anna Raymond is coming off a 16-save performance against Colgate, and she has a 4-4 record with a .415 save percentage on the season. Lafayette has outscored its opponents 104-101 through nine games.
Bucknell is just 5-32 all-time against Lafayette, with the Leopards winning each of the last six meetings. Last season in Lewisburg, Lafayette topped the Bison 14-11 behind six goals from Wilhelmsen and six assists from Ashley Tedesco. Molinari had four goals and two assists for Bucknell.
Holy Cross entered last weekend with an 0-9 record, then pulled off a stunner by beating Navy 7-6 in Worcester. The Crusaders are 1-1 in the Patriot League and will host Army on Wednesday before heading to Lewisburg.
Kaitlin Concilio leads the team in goals (10), assists (10) and points (20), while Tess MacKay has nine goals on the season.
Bucknell is 14-12 all-time against the Crusaders, including back-to-back wins in 2013 and 2014 before Holy Cross bounced back to win 12-10 in overtime last season. The Bison had rallied from behind to take a 10-9 lead, but a costly turnover on a clear led to the Crusaders' tying goal with a minute to play, and then Holy Cross went on to win it in OT.
Molinari had two goals and two assists for Bucknell in that one, while Concilio led Holy Cross with a goal and five assists.
Following the Holy Cross game, Bucknell will be back in action on Apr. 9 at home against American at 1 p.m.
