APRIL 25, 2017

KING'S WOMEN'S LACROSSE OVERCOMES SLOW START TO CLINCH FREEDOM CONFERENCE TOURNEY BERTH

CENTER VALLEY --  The King's College women's lacrosse team overcame a sluggish start to score 13 unanswered goals as the Lady Monarchs clinched a MAC Freedom Conference Tournament berth with a 15-5 victory over DeSales University Tuesday in Center Valley.

With the win, King's improved to 8-7 and 4-2 in Freedom play while DeSales slipped to 5-11 and 1-5. In the process the Lady Monarchs reached the conference tournament for the third straight year and the fourth since 2012.

King's came out of the gates and promptly fell behind 4-1 with 20:04 left in the first half. Amanda Carroll would score just 0:45 later, a goal which appeared to wake up the Lady Monarchs.

From there King's used goals by Megan O'Brien, Gabriella Morrocu, and Tabitha Truelson over a 3:00 span as the Lady Monarchs took their first lead of the game at 5-4 with 15:01 left on the clock. 

Truelson and Morrocu added their second goals of the half to stretch the King's lead to 7-4 with 9:54 remaining. After more than five minutes of scoreless play, Carroll  tallied her second goal at the 4:18 mark to push the score to 8-4, before Anastasia Araviakis closed out the half with King's final two goals, the second coming at the half-time buzzer as the Lady Monarchs took a 10-4 lead at the break. King's scored the final nine goals of the half.

In the second half, Truelson and Carroll each added their third goals of the game before King's defender Brianna Zawacki scored her first goal of the season. Kendra McCoy then struck net with 26:40 remaining to increase the King's lead to 14-4. The goal capped a 13-0 Lady Monarch run before DeSales finally reached the scoreboard again with 4:19 left in the contest. Araviakis added a free position goal with 2:12 left to set the final score.

King's outshot DeSales 26-15 and held a 23-21 advantage in ground balls. The Lady Monarchs also forced  31 turnovers while committing 22. 

Carroll led King's with three goals and one assist while Araviakis and Truelson also netted three goals apiece. Morrocu contributed two goals and one assist while McCoy added one goal and two assists.  O'Brien tallied one goal and one assist. Victoria Zawacki made six saves in goal for the Lady Monarchs.

Kelly Mead led DeSales with three goals while Lori King had eight saves in net.

King's will close out the regular-season Saturday with a 1:00 PM matchup at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. King's trails Manhattanville by one game in the league standings and a Lady Monarch win would give King's the third seed in next week's league championships.