Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Gettysburg College tossed in the final two goals and had a shot to tie Franklin & Marshall College late in the Centennial Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship on Sunday, but the sixth-ranked Diplomats dodged the Bullets' bid with a big save and held on for a 7-6 victory.

Franklin & Marshall (17-2) won the conference championship for the fifth-consecutive season – all of which have come at the expense of seventh-ranked Gettysburg (14-4). The Diplomats receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament which begins May 11. The Bullets will have to wait to see if they receive an at-large bid from the committee next weekend.

For the second consecutive year, the Centennial Conference title was decided by a single goal, and once again it was Franklin & Marshall's Cat Serpe that proved the difference. After spoiling Gettysburg's title hopes with an overtime goal in a 9-8 decision last spring, Serpe capped a 4-0 run by the hosts to set the score at 7-4 with 11:55 to play.

Despite several looks at the cage over the next seven minutes, the Bullets were unable to get on the board until freshman Kelsey Markiewicz tossed a free-position goal past Kelsey Hoffman at 4:09. Gettysburg won the next draw control and junior Hannah Church made the possession count with her third goal of the game to cut the lead to one (7-6) with 3:28 to play.

The visitors took the next draw and set up the offense for a strike at the tie. Markiewicz was awarded a free-position attempt after making a move to the cage, but this time around Hoffman proved the better, knocking away the Gettysburg first-year's bounce shot with 2:35 left. Franklin & Marshall cleared the ball out of the defensive zone and dodged the Bullets' attempts to intercept for the remainder of the game.

The two teams exchanged scores to open the contest until Church and Markiewicz went back-to-back at 11:12 and 10:18, respectively, to give the visitors their first lead of the game. Mary McNutt tallied a goal for Franklin & Marshall to set the score at 3-3 heading into the half.

Church regained the lead for the Orange and Blue at the start of the second half with an unassisted tally at 22:39. That would be Gettysburg's last score until Markiewicz's free-position goal 18:30 later. In the meantime, the Diplomats converted three of their four final goals following turnovers by the Bullets.

Gettysburg out-shot Franklin & Marshall 22-17, but the Bullets were just 2-of-7 on free-positions. The Diplomats picked up one more ground ball (22-21) and corralled one more draw control (8-7).

Church posted three goals and an assist for Gettysburg, while Markiewicz posted a pair of tallies. Senior Marnie Commins accounted for the Bullets' remaining goal. Junior Maddie Coleman made seven saves in the cage.

Senior Becky Lutz backed up her Player of the Year award with a strong performance for Gettysburg, posting three ground balls and a game-high four caused turnovers. The caused turnovers pushed her season total to 50, breaking the school's previous single-season mark of 48 set by Kate Murphy '05 in 2005.

Hoffman put up a season-high dozen saves against Gettysburg for the second time this season. Erin Dunne led the Franklin & Marshall offense with three goals and Serpe added three draw controls to her lone tally. Libby Nichols posted four ground balls and three caused turnovers.