INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team jumped out to a 10-0 lead and held off division-leading Indiana (Pa.) for a 14-9 win Tuesday at George Miller Stadium to hand the Crimson Hawks their first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division loss of the season.
 
Slippery Rock closes the first round of divisional play in the PSAC West with a 7-4 overall record and a 3-3 mark in divisional games. Indiana slips to 8-3 overall and 5-1 in PSAC West action.
 
The Rock wasted little time in jumping out to a lead, scoring three goals in the first five minutes and racing out to a 6-0 lead after the first quarter. SRU extended that advantage to 10-0 with 8:51 to play in the second quarter before IUP stopped the bleeding with its first goal with 5:11 to play in the half. Neither team would score again as SRU took a 10-1 lead to the break.
 
Indiana stormed back into the game by outscoring Slippery Rock 7-1 in the third quarter to narrow the deficit to 11-7 heading to the fourth quarter.
 
SRU added insurance goals just 14 seconds apart at 10:51 and 10:37 remaining to push the advantage back out to 13-7 and put the game out of reach.
 
The Rock finished the game with advantages of 27-25 in total shots and 14-13 in draw controls, while IUP posted a 26-25 edge in ground balls and an 11-10 advantage in caused turnovers.
 
Slippery Rock was led by Emily Benham with seven points on five goals and two assists. Benham, who has 17 points in her last two games, now has 24 assists this spring and is just one away from tying the SRU single-season record of 25 that is owned by Kaytlin Callaghan.
 
Jamie DiCarlo added a hat trick, Katie Dlugosz scored two goals and handed out one assist and Molly Buettner and Eryn Little each scored two goals. Brooke Kelly added two assists and Charleigh Rondeau had one assist to cap the scorers. Rondeau was limited to a season-low five draw controls to bring her season total to 96 on the year.
 
Sara Danowski had three caused turnovers and two ground balls to lead the defense and Gillian O'Rourke was credited with four saves in goal.
 
IUP got three goals and three assists from Jordan Kulp and eight saves from Ashley Andrikanich in goal.
 
Tuesday's game closed a stretch of four straight road games for Slippery Rock, which will return home Saturday to open the second round of PSAC West games against Mercyhurst at 1 p.m. at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
 
 

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