STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan University women's lacrosse won its first game in program history, defeating Wilmington College 17-6. The Lady Baron's got off to a 6-1 start and dominated from start to finish, in the program's fifth game ever.

The team scored the most goals in program history, allowed the least goals in program history, and had the largest time of possession in program history.

"We are so excited. I'm just so proud of the girls," Head Coach Maura Conant said. "We played with the mindset that after every goal its 0-0 and that really helped us today."

After a series of slow starts in their first four games, Franciscan started strong off the opening draw, giving the Lady Barons confidence and a new mentality.

"Our goal was to be the first team to score. We haven't done that before and this was the first time we were able to." Conant said. "Honestly that really sets the tone for the rest of the game."

Conant said the team set a number of specific goals for her team before the game, something they have been doing all season. While some of these milestones were as simple possessing the ball for three minutes, they had already grown to 25 minutes of possession and scoring more than seven goals. They shattered both of those numbers with 17 goals and over 40 minutes of possession.

"We realize that you start to crawl, then walk, then run and you can't go from crawl to run. I think giving the girls those concrete goals is what really helps us," Conant said. "What's also really encouraging is that each of our offensive players scored."

Having all seven starting attack and midfielders score shattered another one of Conant's previously set goals. Before the Lady Baron's previous game, against Waynesburg University, the team set a goal of having every offensive player on the stat sheet.

Leading Franciscan's offense was midfielder Lauren Noce, attack Tracey McClelland, attack Lindsay Matthys and midfielder Shannon Root. Noce, the team's leading scorer had four goals, making the third time in five games that she's scored at least a hat trick, while McClelland added another four goals.

The Lady Baron's goalkeeper Jenna Gottemoeller also played an excellent game with seven saves; the first time all season she had more saves than goals allowed.

"It's a big achievement for her," Conant said. "She was stopping shots I've never seen her stop."

The Lady Baron's will look to carry their momentum into their next game, an away match against Mount Union on Saturday, March 9 at 12 pm.