Defense keeps Cavs on top of PAC

·vJessica Snow sports editor

After a first half that went back and forth a great deal the :1dyCavalier's lacrosse team took over the final game at Ie start of the second half.

The Pennsylvania Athletic Conference championship :1meagainst Eastern College was held at Cabrini on Sat- rday, April 29. Plenty of fans were on hand from both ;hools and the teams made it very exciting for them.

Eastern scored first and the lead continued to go from one •am to the other until the score was left tied at seven at :1lftime.

Th e team from across the street would not gain the lead ~ain, although it would try. Eastern stayed just a few points 3hind Cabrini for most of the second half, but their efforts ,uld not match those of the Cavaliers.

The final score was 15-10 and it seemed the Lady Eagles 3ver had a chance against the reigning PAC champions. Merrie Lewis, a senior, was named the Most Valuable layer of the game. Lewis, who is the team's captain along ith Christy Malone and Gilda Zoccola, scored two goals in 1eCavs victory and already had 25 goals this season.

Megan Hyde, also a senior, is the team's leading scorer with 40 goals prior to Saturday's game.

The leading scorer of the game was sophomore Tracee King, with four. Junior Angela Grassa, sophomore Nicole Schulz and first-year student Siobhan McGonigle contributed two goals each.

The problem for Eastern, even more than the number of goals scored on their team in the second half, was that the team could not score any goals. Cabrini's defense was working overtime.

Malone, the Cavs goaltender, came into the game with an 8.6 goals against average, second in the PAC only to Neumann's Nicole Procaccio.

Malone was only shot on four times in the second half of play. In the first half she made five saves and let up seven goals. Eastern was just not getting to the goal.

One reason for the strong defensive play may have been the encouragement of the team's very pregnant coach, Jackie Neary.

Neary jumped around the sideline manically and could be heard yelling "collapse on that player" and "Get...On Her Now." over the many screaming fans that came out to see the great rivalry.

The Lady Cavs will loose seven seniors after this season, but stay confident about the future of their winning record.

They