SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Kutztown University women's lacrosse had four players record hat tricks and used big second and third quarters to erase an early deficit and comeback to defeat Shippensburg University 15-11 Saturday afternoon at the Robb Sports Complex at Shippensburg.
 
The Golden Bears (4-3 overall, 1-2 PSAC) won their first conference game under first-year head coach Kristen Nicholson and the first PSAC contest in almost a year, a March 23, victory against Millersville.
 
Four underclassmen compiled three goals each as sophomore Emma Meakim (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) and freshmen Lailah ElBouazzaoui (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan), Sam Graf (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) and Olivia Eilbacher (Cherry Hill, N.J./Camden Catholic) led the KU attack with 12 of the team's 16 goals. It was a career day for Meakim who also contributed three assists for a career-best six points. It was also a season-high for Eilbacher and third time this season Graf has scored three times in a game. Both Golden Bears added an assist for four points on the day.
 
Kutztown found itself in an early hole, trailing 4-2 after the opening quarter and was looking for some momentum after dropping its first two PSAC games, both also on the road. KU found an extra gear in the second quarter that filtered over into the third.
 
Behind 6-4 with 9:38 left in the second, the Maroon and Gold scored five unanswered to end the period and six straight overall in to the third to take a 10-6 lead 0:50 into the second half. The Raiders (2-6, 0-4) got one right back 1:01 later to cut their deficit back to three goals at 10-7, but that was the closest that they would get the rest of the way as ElBouazzaoui and Meakim scored back-to-back goals in a span of 2:16 in the third quarter and the KU defense was stout for the remainder of the game, allowing two goals late in the fourth quarter when the game was already in hand for the visitors.
 
Cyrose Conteh (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown), Shannon Lake (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) and Lexie Jackson (Barnegat, N.J./Barnegat) rounded out the scoring for KU with a goal apiece. Jenna Blesson (Sparta, N.J./Lenape Valley Regional) finished with 10 saves and earned her third victory this season. Graf and Conteh each collected four ground balls and the latter led the team with three caused turnovers.
 
Kutztown completes a four-game, PSAC road trip to begin conference play with a game at defending Atlantic Region champion East Stroudsburg next Wednesday, March 30, at 4 p.m.

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