MILLERSVILLE, Pa. -- The 15th-ranked Kutztown University women's lacrosse team opened up a 9-1 lead after a quarter and outscored host Millersville 15-2 across the first and third quarters in a 19-9 PSAC East victory Sunday afternoon.
Lailah ElBouazzaoui (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) paced all players with five goals and seven points,
Olivia Eilbacher (Cherry Hill, N.J./Camden Catholic) found the back of the net four times and
Shannon Lake (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) and
Emma Meakim (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) enjoyed four-point afternoons for the Golden Bears, who improved to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play.
Kutztown scored the first eight goals in the wire-to-wire victory. Less than two minutes in,
Katie Yocum (Hanover, Pa./South Western) and Lake registered goals 15 seconds apart for a quick 2-0 lead.
Sam Graf (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) (player down),
Madison Wenner (Marmora, N.J./Ocean City) and Meakim extended the Bears' lead to 5-0 by the 8:15 mark before Eilbacher scored back-to-back goals.
ElBouazzaoui capped the 8-0 run with her 25th of the season and added one more with KU up a player in the final 20 seconds of the opening period for a 9-1 Golden Bear advantage.
Kutztown outshot Millersville 16-5 in the first and held a 6-1 edge in ground balls.
ElBouazzaoui scored twice more in the second and Lake finished off a pass from
Alexis Plesic (Hanover, Pa./South Western) as the visitors took a 12-3 lead to the break.
The Golden Bears imposed their will again in the third, starting the second half with six unanswered goals to go up 18-4 --their largest lead of the day. All six goals came from different players: Graf, Lake, ElBouazzaoui, Eilbacher, Yocum and Wenner.
Millersville (3-6, 1-4 PSAC East) answered with five goals in a row but the result was long decided by the time Ashlyn Simonetti netted her fourth of the afternoon to trim the gap to 18-9 with 3:43 remaining. Eilbacher's fourth goal of the game with 2:32 to go provided the final margin of victory.
Kutztown finished a perfect 19-of-19 on clearing attempts and stretched their ground ball advantage to 21-10 by the final horn.
Summer Davis (Beach Haven, N.J./Southern Regional) recorded five ground balls with defensive mate
Robin Spector (Northfield, N.J./Mainland Regional) and goalie
Jenna Blesson (Sparta, N.J./Lenape Valley Regional) adding three each. Spector also caused a pair of turnovers.
Joining ElBouazzaoui and Eilbacher with multi-goal games for the Maroon and Gold were Lake (three), Graf (two), Wenner (two) and Yocum (two). Meakim totaled a goal and game-high three assists.
Blesson stopped four shots to pick up her seventh win of the season in goal. Millersville counterpart Morgan Scott made six saves.
Kutztown now turns its attention to another midweek nationally ranked matchup when East Stroudsburg visits Keystone Field for a 3 p.m. start this coming Wednesday, April 10. The Warriors were ranked fifth in last week's IWLCA Division II Poll.
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