WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University women's lacrosse team picked up their first MAC win of the year by defeating cross-town rival King's College 19-8 on Wednesday afternoon, snapping the Lady Colonels two game losing streak.

 

With the win, Wilkes now improves to 5-3 on the season and 1-2 in the conference, while the Lady Monarchs see their record drop to 0-6 on the year and 0-4 in the MAC.

 

The opening half was one filled with runs with the Lady Colonels taking an early 3-0 lead thanks to two goals by Melissa Polchinski (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) and one tally by Brittney Hodnik (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton). King's would quickly answer by getting back-to-back goals by Candice Russ and Alicia Cox to cut the margin to 3-2 with 22:12 remaining, before Wilkes would score five straight to make the count 8-2 with just under 16 minutes left in the opening stanza.

 

King's answered the Wilkes run with four straight goals of their own to cut the lead to just two at 8-6 with 3:38 to go in the opening stanza, before the Lady Colonels gave themselves a cushion with three more scores before the break to take an 11-6 advantage at the intermission.

 

The second half saw Wilkes step up their defense, surrendering just two goals over the final 30 minutes. The Lady Colonels also kept their strong offense barrage going, finding the net nine more times, headlined by three goals apiece from Polchinski and Hodnik to post the final 19-8 margin.

 

Polchinski lead all scorers, posting seven more goals and one assist on the afternoon. Hodnik was right behind her with six scores and one helper, Kat Edwards (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) added three goals, while Analicia Jost (Mt. Ephraim, N.J./Gloucester Catholic), Jordan Brown, and Amanda Tilley (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) found the back of the net once each for the Lady Colonels. Allie Zukuft started and made five saves in goal, while Cassie Cronin (Manchester, NH/Manchester Memorial) played the second half and made three stops.

 

Cox and Russ scored two goals each to pace the Lady Monarchs, while Sierra Coleman, Kari Leach, Christina Glenn, and Taylor Tyne had one score apiece. Chrissy Keenan made 15 saves between the pipes for King's.