The Wilkes University women's lacrosse team was unable to get back into winning form on Tuesday afternoon, dropping a 19-8 decision to Messiah College at a rainy Ralston Field.
The Lady Colonels have now lost their second-straight, seeing their record move to 8-5 on the year and 4-4 in the MAC, while the Falcons improve to 9-3 overall and a perfect 7-0 in conference play.
Wilkes took the early lead when
Kat Edwards (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) took a pass from
Brittney Hodnik (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton) and beat the Falcon goalie with 24:47 remaining for the 1-0 advantage. Edwards would then be involved in another goal for the Lady Colonels, this time finding
Melissa Polchinski (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) who gave Wilkes a 2-0 lead with 22:19 left.
However, Messiah would answer in a big way, rattling off eight straight scores to take a commanding 8-2 lead with just over ten minutes to go before the break. Wilkes would outscore the Falcons 3-2 in the final ten minutes to settle at a 10-5 halftime score.
The second half was more of the same, with Messiah scoring seven of the first eight goals of the period to extend the margin to 17-6, from which the Lady Colonels could not recover.
Jackie Dando led all scorers in the game with four goals and three assists. Rachel Coyle also scored four goals for the Falcons, Megan Bovenzi added three scores and one assist, Meghan Doolittle tallied three goals, Rachel Dirksen had two goals and two helpers, Deb Tam had two goals and one assist, while Nikki Lawrence was credited with one goal and one assist.
Polchinski scored three times for Wilkes, while
Amanda Tilley (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) scored twice and assisted on one other.
Brittney Hodnik (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton) contributed one goal and three assists, Edwards had one goal and one helper, while Jordan Brown found the back of the net once.
Jen Venter earned the win for Messiah in goal after making five saves on the afternoon.
Cassie Cronin (Manchester, NH/Manchester Memorial) stopped 13 Falcon shots for the Lady Colonels in the losing effort.
Wilkes will return to action on Saturday when they travel to St. Davids to take on Eastern in more MAC action starting at 12 p.m.
