LANCASTER, PA -- Blake Hargest scored five goals and Jen Pritchard won seven draw controls and scored three times to lead #2 Franklin & Marshall to a 15-5 victory over #6 Union in an NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Regional Semifinal Game at F&M's North Campus Athletic Field Saturday. The Diplomats improved to 18-1 while the Dutchwomen end their season at 15-4. The 15 victories match the 2008 season for the school record in single season wins.

Meredith Lussier scored four goals with a game high 11 shots, including 10 on net, for Franklin & Marshall. The Diplomats host the regional final Sunday against the winner of Saturday's St. John Fisher/Tufts game.

Union was led by Kristin Joyce, who scored two goals and had a team high six shots. Chelsea Charette, Allie Cuozzo and Melissa Hine also scored for the Dutchwomen. Cat Ruggiero made 10 saves in the Union nets, including seven in the first period.

Franklin & Marshall won 16 of the 24 draw controls and was successful on 12 of 15 clear attempts. The hosts also outshot the visitors, 32-15, including 17-7 in the first half, and forced 21 turnovers. Union forced 15 turnovers. Lidia Sanza made 10 saves for the Diplomats. Ruggiero (ranked #2) and Sanza (#3) provided the game with two of the top three ranked goaltenders in goals against average in NCAA Division III for this game.

The Diplomats won the early draws and thus took the early lead. Hargest scored a natural hat trick for a 3-0 F&M lead. She scored just 29 seconds into the game off the opening draw with an assist from Lauren Ehrhardt, then made it 2-0 28 seconds later. Her 29th of the season came from Shannon Summers, who is second in the nation in assists. Hargest's third goal made it 3-0 at 18:46. 

Union got on the board when Melissa Hine nothced her 11th of the year on an unassisted score at 14:45. But 1:29 later, Meredith Lussier tallied for a 4-1 host lead. Pritchard then notched a free position goal at 12:40 and took a pass from Hargest at 8:42 to make it 6-1. Summers fed Lussier at 8:01 for a 7-1 lead. But Cuozzo ended the first half with a free position goal for the Dutchwomen with 5:16 left in the first half and cut the deficit to five at 7-2. It was Cuozzo's 26th goal of the year.

Charette notched her 47th of 2009 when she converted a free position shot with 26:32 left to cut the lead to four at 7-3. Sarah Meisenberg assisted on Lussier's goal at 23:05 for F&M's eighth goal, but at 20:48, Joyce scored her 63rd of the season and 12th on a free position opportunity to pull Union back to within four at 8-4. But Ashley Bevington (17:58) and Summers (17:40) got it to 10-4. Joyce provided Union's fifth goal and #64 at 16:51 and it was 10-5. But the Diplomats put it away with five goals from 15:45 to 7:21, with the last goal coming by Pritchard providing the running time that chewed up the final minutes.

Two Union seniors played in their final game, Elise Wakeland and Liz Zamore. These seniors played in three NCAA playoffs during their careers. Union was 53-18 during their four seasons.

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