Photo By Michael Lipscomb
By Eden Savoy
The women’s lacrosse team delivered a dominant performance on Saturday afternoon at Sassafras Field, securing an 18-12 victory over the Lycoming in Landmark Conference play.
Emma Kelleher led the charge in scoring with four goals while Liv Owen contributed 8 points including five assists, putting the latter over the 200-career points milestone.
Owen is the fifth player in school history to reach the milestone. 8 points is a single-game high for the senior attacker.
“It feels really amazing,” Owen said. “But I can’t say that I got here myself; it was definitely my team supporting me as well.”
The Warriors (6-5 overall, 1-3 Landmark) struck first, but the River Hawks quickly responded with a goal from Sophia Trively, opening the scoring for the home team. The River Hawks (5-7, 2-2) didn’t stop there, adding four more goals in the first quarter for a strong start and a lead of 5-2. Liv Owen and Jessica Russo each contributed one, while Kelleher found the back of the net twice.
The second quarter contained a little more back-and-forth action, but SU stayed in control, going into halftime with a 10-6 lead. Susquehanna’s defense, led by goalie Aerin O’Brien, stepped up, with O’Brien making several critical saves to deny the Warriors scoring opportunities. Waverly Oake-Libow, Allie Kutler, Abby Andrus, Liv Owen, and Sophia Trively all contributed a goal in the second quarter.
“I think [that] being able to move and really spread apart their defense worked really well,” Owen said. “Obviously our defense is also a force with a couple of ball turnovers.”
Despite the River Hawks holding the lead, Lycoming came out strong in the third quarter, putting three more goals under their belt to stay within striking distance. Despite many turnovers, Susquehanna responded with four goals of their own to end the third quarter with a score of 14-9.
The River Hawks guaranteed their win early with insurance goals in the fourth quarter despite hard comeback attempts from the Warriors, making their late rally efforts ineffective.
“We worked really well today, and it showed,” Owen said.
Heading into the final month of the regular season, the team has only five more games remaining before the Landmark Conference tournament. SU will host Juniata at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.