ST. DAVID'S (PA) – The Delaware Valley University women's lacrosse team opened its Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom schedule at Eastern University on Saturday, but it was the home team that used a late spurt to secure the 17-12 victory.

The Eagles improved to 3-5 overall with their first league win of the season while the Aggies dropped to 4-4 and 0-1.

In the first half the goals came in bunches as Eastern got out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Julie Haggan and Meghan Kosmides within the first 13 minutes of play. DelVal answered right back as Claire Gamache and Amanda McKeegan each notched their 17^th of the season with goals separated by just 23 seconds.

Less than a minute after McKeegan's goal, the Eagles were back up by two as Haggan and Mackenzie Dix scored within 30 seconds of each other to make it 4-2.

The Aggies would score the next three goals in the half as McKeegan setup Gamache for her second of the day before earning her second tally, unassisted, to tie the game at 4-4. Courtney Knight gave DelVal its only lead of the game at 5-4 with her first goal of the season and 8:26 left in the half.

However, Eastern closed the half with three unanswered goals, the last two from Liz Brennan, to take a 7-5 lead at the break. The Eagles held a 13-12 shot on goal advantage, but lost the draw control battle, 8-7, in the first stanza.

Out of the break, Gamache found Taylor Teliszewski to pull the Aggies within one, 7-6, just 17 seconds in.

A turning point came at the 14:05 mark of the second half when a DelVal player was issued a red card, forcing the team to play man-down the rest of the way, trailing 12-8.

From there, the Aggies scored the next two goals to pull within two, 12-10, with just under 13 minutes left in regulation. Kara Imes and Sabrina Butler got the goals.

The next five and half minutes belonged to the Eagles as they scored five unanswered goals to open a 17-10 lead with 7:19 left. Dix and Kosmides had two goals each during the spurt.

Teliszewski and Gamache added one goal apiece down the stretch, but it was not enough as Eastern held on for the 17-12 win.

The Aggies held a 28-27 advantage in shots on goal and an 18-13 edge in draw controls for the game. Gamache had the best game of her rookie season as she led the team in every category with four goals, two assists, six points, 10 ground balls, nine draw controls and eight caused turnovers. McKeegan followed with four points on three goals and one helper while Teiszewski (2 goals) and Knight (1 goal, 1 assist) added two points apiece. Knight also had 10 ground balls and seven caused turnovers. Amanda Dietrich played all 60 minutes making 10 saves.

For the Eagles, Kosmides finished with six goals and Liz Brennan had four goals and five points followed by Dix's three goals and one assist. Sam Brennan picked up two helpers while leading the squad with seven ground balls and five caused turnovers. Marcie Spencer went the distance in goal and made 16 saves.

???????DelVal will keep to the road as it travels to take on DeSales University in another MAC Freedom showdown on Wednesday, April 11 at 4 p.m.