CHESTERTOWN — No. 11-ranked Gettysburg raced out to a 4-0 lead in the game’s opening six minutes and never braked en route to a 19-7 victory at Washington on Saturday in women’s lacrosse.
This was the final game of the regular season for the Centennial Conference rivals, who will now turn their attention to this week’s CC tournament.
The Bullets have allowed just 12 total goals in their last three games as part of a seven-game winning streak entering the postseason.
Gettysburg [7-1 CC, 12-5] finished as part of a three-way tie for the best record in the conference but will be the No. 3 seed in the tournament after tiebreakers.
Washington [4-4 CC, 10-6] is the No. 5 seed and will travel to Swarthmore [5-3 CC, 12-4] for the play-in game on Wednesday, April 29.
On Saturday, senior attacker Julia Daly went over the career 350 point mark, leading the Bullets with a season-high nine points on five goals and four assists. She also had five ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Mia Salvatierra, also a senior attacker, led Washington with four goals and an assist. She scooped up three ground balls and had two draw controls.
After spotting the visiting team the first four goals, Washington got on the board when Salvatierra scored on the Gettysburg defense for the first time in about 85 minutes of game play.
Washington’s Anna Wilson found the back of the net three minutes later to cut the deficit in half, 4-2, with 2 minutes, 9 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Daly set up Sarah Scollin in the first 40 seconds of the second quarter before scoring twice unassisted for a 7-2 lead with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half.
After a second Salvatierra goal, Daly converted her fourth midway through the period.
Washington’s Piper Evans and Gettysburg’s Katie Westmoreland traded goals.
Then, Maddie Passarello finished Riley d’Entremont and Daly helpers just 67 seconds apart.
Nina Marra with a man-up goal made it 12-4 just before intermission.
Gettysburg scored eight unanswered goals in a run that carried over from one half into the other for an insurmountable 16-4 lead with nearly five minutes still to play in the third quarter.
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Haverford, Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg each finished the Centennial Conference regular season at 7-1 and were 1-1 head-to-head against each other, but the Fords earned the CC tournament’s No. 1 seed via a goal-differential tiebreaker among the three tied teams.
Three-time defending conference champion F&M [8-8, 7-1 CC[ secured the No. 2 seed by virtue of its head-to-head win over Gettysburg [12-5, 7-1 CC] in the regular season and will host Gettysburg on Friday in the semifinals.
F&M edged Muhlenberg in their regular-season finale on Saturday, 9-8.
In Friday’s other semifinal, top-seeded Haverford [12-5, 7-1 CC] will host the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between Washington and Swarthmore.
Haverford defeated Swarthmore on Saturday, 17-5, to lock up the top seed.
Despite the loss, Swarthmore [12-4, 5-3 CC] earned the No. 4 seed.
The semifinal-round winners will face off on Sunday, May 3 at the field of the higher seed.