EDWARDSVILLE – Sophomore Sarah Carlini (Collegeville, PA/Pope John Paul II) made 19 saves but it was not enough as Eastern University pulled away late to a 17-9 Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) victory over the Wilkes University women's lacrosse team on Senior Day at Schmidt Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Colonels honored its four seniors, Kylie Bedwell (Prospect Park, Pa./Interboro), Maura Brownsey (Glenside, PA/St. Basil Academy), Heather Lorincz (Bridgewater, NJ/Immaculata), and Jessyca Held (West Babylon, NY/West Babylon), prior to the game and led the Eagles 7-6 at halftime.

Wilkes fell to 3-11 overall and to 0-5 in MAC Freedom games while Eastern improved to 6-6 overall and to 4-1 in the conference.

Eastern scored the first goal of the game but Brownsey found the net off a pass from Kyra Boccio (Dingmans Ferry, Pa./Delaware Valley) for the senior's fifth goal of the season with 21:15 left in the first 30 minutes to tie the game. Eastern took a 2-1 lead before the Lady Colonels scored the next two to go ahead for the first time. Boccio set up Ashley Burkhardt (Havre de Grace, MD/Havre de Grace) for a goal and then Kirsten Jackson (Baltimore, MD/Kenwood) scored on a man-up breakaway for her third tally of the season.

The Eagles answered with two goals to take a 4-3 lead before Wilkes responded with the next three to go ahead 6-4. Sierra Duman (Smyrna, DE/Smyrna) struck first on a free position shot with 7:09 left in the first half. Then Held scored her team-leading 41^st goal on a free position chance with 6:03 left and Boccio tallied her 30^th goal of the year just 30 seconds later after Held won a draw control. Eastern then scored two goals to tie the score but Duman scored with 29 seconds left before the halftime horn off an assist from Held who won another draw control to put the Lady Colonels out front 7-6 at the break.

The visitors came out strong in the second half and took the lead for good with 26:25 left. In all, it was a four-goal run that put the Eagles up 10-7 before Duman scored her third goal of the game and 18^th of the season on a perfectly placed free position shot to pull Wilkes back within two goals at 10-8 with 18:03 left to play. Eastern then scored the next three before Burkhardt scored with a quick release in front off an entry pass from Boccio to make it 13-9 with 3:39 left. The goal was the 25^th of the season for the freshman and the assist was the 24^th of the season for Boccio to pull her into a tie at the top of the conference.

Eastern would close the game by scoring four goals in the final 2:29 to pull away to the 17-9 win.

Boccio led the Wilkes attack with four points on one goal and three assists. Duman followed with three goals and Burkhardt had two. Held also had a multi-point game with one goal and one assist.

Held tied for second in the program's single-game history book with 11 draw controls. She added five ground balls and three caused turnovers in her final home game. Lorincz collected three ground balls and had two caused turnovers while Bedwell went for two and two in their final home action. Jackson led the team with six ground balls.

Meghan Kosmides and Liz Brennan each scored five goals for Eastern.

The Lady Colonels next travel to Doylestown, Pa. to take on Delaware Valley University in a conference matchup at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday.