York, Pa. – The No. 12 York women's lacrosse team came away with an exciting 14-9 over Washington College in the season opener Wednesday night at Kinsley Field.
 
The game got off to an early back-and-forth start, but the Spartans took advantage of a 5-0 run to end the first quarter which proved to be the big difference in a rather even game the rest of the way.
 
Team Records
Washington (Md.) 2-1
#12 York 1-0
 
How It Happened
Both teams came out firing with the game tied, 2-2, less than five minutes into the first quarter. Zoe Kluegel opened the scoring for the Spartans and Sydney Mentzer added knotted the game up at two. The Spartans took off from there and scored four more unanswered with contributions from Madison Kurland, Logan Ward, Teresa Matthias and Gianna Huet to head into the second quarter up 6-2.
 
The Shoreman broke their near 19-minute scoreless drought when Ellie Morrall neeted a free-position goal with 9:09 left in the second quarter making it a 6-3 game in favor of York. Kluegel and Kierstan Blanchard answered back with two more off the free position to extend the Spartan lead to five with three minutes remaining in the first half. Mia Salvatierra would answer for WAC and make it an 8-4 game with 64 seconds left, but Blanchard made sure York did not go into the break quietly as she tallied another to extend the York lead to 9-4 at the half.
 
The Shorewomen came out with some adjustments, deciding to face guard Gianna Huet, who was a key catalyst in the first half controlling the offense for the Spartans. Matthias would score early for York, but that was the last of the Spartan scoring over the next eight minutes as Washington would go on a 3-0 run, cutting the deficit to as little as three. Mentzer and Blanchard both got found the back of the net again in the closing minutes of third quarter to boost the Spartan lead up to 12-7 at the end of 45 minutes of play.
 
Just over 30 seconds into the fourth, Morrall found the back of the net for the fourth time for the Shorewomen to cut the deficit to four. However, the scoring would go silent for WAC over the next 14 minutes. Washington came up empty on their last seven free-position opportunities in the fourth with Spartan goalie Bella Garabo stopping three free-postion shots.
 
Up Next
The Spartans begin a three-game road stint on Saturday at No. 8 Franklin & Marshall.
The Shorewomen will also be on the road Saturday with a trip to their Eastern Shore rival #No. 5 Salisbury
 
Notes
The Spartans improve to 4-0 against Washington in the all-time series … York has now won 14-straight on opening day and with all four of their wins over WAC in those contests … York has now won their last five regular season games on Kinsley Field and eight of their last nine overall on their home turf … sophomore Zoe Kluegel racked up a career-high five points on three goals and two assists … senior Kiersten Blanchard and freshman Sydney Mentzer also scored a trio of goals on the night … Blanchard moved into fifth-place on the program's career list for free-position goals as she now has 30 for her career … sophomore McKenna Seashole made her first-career start in goal and recorded four saves with four goals against on 11 shots faced in the 30 minutes of play.