LANCASTER, Pa. – Senior Katie Willis (Baltimore, Md./Notre Dame Prep) totaled a career-high seven points and was one of four players with at least three goals as fourth-ranked Gettysburg College opened the postseason with a 17-9 victory over No. 25 Washington College in the Centennial Conference Championships semifinals at Shadek Stadium on the campus of Franklin and Marshall College Saturday.
 
Gettysburg (15-2) will meet Franklin & Marshall (16-3), which defeated Dickinson College 12-8 in the semis, in Sunday's championship game at 1 p.m. This will be the sixth consecutive meeting between the Bullets and Diplomats for the CC championship, and 15th in the last 16 seasons.
 
Willis paced the attack with five goals and two assists. Senior Katie Landry (Hingham, Mass./Hingham) and sophomore Liza Barr (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) each produced three goals and one assist, while junior Steph Colson (Westminster, Md./Manchester Valley) tallied three points, two ground balls, and seven draw controls. Senior Maggie Welsh (Rye, N.Y./Holy Child) dished out four assists.
 
Cecily Docktor paced Washington (13-5) with two goals and one assist. Madison Acra added a goal and two assists, while goalie Isabelle Richardson recorded a dozen saves.
 
Colson seized each of the first two draws for Gettysburg and Landry made the possessions count with a goal and a pass to Barr for the opening two tallies. Acra answered for Washington with 26:32 left in the first half, but goals by Barr and Willis made it 4-1 two minutes later.
 
The Shorewomen were unable to string together any kind of a scoring run in the opening half and the Bullets continued to add to the lead. After Washington pulled to 9-6, Gettysburg's defense logged three consecutive stops with caused turnovers by sophomore Claire Macatee (Street, Md./North Harford) and junior Brooke Holechek (Reisterstown, Md./Notre Dame Prep) sandwiched around a save by junior goalie Bailey Pilder (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan).
 
Willis found freshman Kerry McKeever (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville) for a goal in the final minute of the period which set the halftime score at 10-6.
 
Landry and Colson padded the advantage with goals to open the final period, but Washington finally logged back-to-back goals to cut the deficit back down to four. That would be as close as the Shorewomen would get as the Bullets tossed in the next four shots with Willis making it a 16-8 lead with 5:28 to play.
 
Gettysburg finished with a 36-15 edge in shots and an 18-10 lead in draw controls.
 
Holechek finished with four caused turnovers and a ground ball, while Macatee totaled three caused turnovers and two ground balls. Pilder logged three saves.
 
Sunday's championship game is the continuation of one of the top rivalries on all of Division III lacrosse. Gettysburg leads all Centennial institutions with 10 titles, while Franklin & Marshall is second with seven. The Diplomats hold a slight 33-31-1 advantage in the series, including an 8-4 win over then-top-ranked Gettysburg earlier this season. The Bullets have won the last four meetings in Lancaster, including the 2016 conference title game. Last spring, the two teams played the longest game in the history of the CC Championship with F&M prevailing 7-6 in double-overtime.