BEXLEY, Ohio – Franciscan women's lacrosse showed spurts of its best defense of the season despite losing 20-2 to a talented Capital University.

The pressure was on the FUS defense early and often with the Crusaders dominating possession throughout the game.  While the uneven possession gave put the Lady Barons on their heels for most of the evening, it did give their defense a chance to play some of its best lacrosse.

The pinnacle of these flashes came in the first half when Franciscan held a Capital possession at bay for four consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.

"They kept moving the ball and we weren't fouling. We were just moving with them and communicating," head coach Maura Conanat said. "It really showed our improvement in building our chemistry on that side of the field."

Helping the Franciscan defense was freshman Catherine Cahill, who once again filled in between the pipes for the team's absent, and only true goalkeeper. Cahill finished the game with six saves, and led the team with five ground balls.

Another standout performance came late in the second half when Conant subbed in freshman Christine Lustenberger with under five minutes left to take her first draw of the season. The attacker responded by flipping the ball to Mary Krolicki to win the team's seventh draw of the game and continued to find FUS players on the next two draws.

"There is no better teacher than the real life game. So we just decided to have her give it a try and she did a great job under pressure," Conant said. "That was her first time ever taking the draw in a game."

Before Lustenberger, the Lady Baron struggled to control the ball both at the draw and elsewhere. The combination of not having the ball and an effective Captial keeper kept Franciscan's usually dangerous offense from doing much damage. The team only generated nine shots, seven of which were saved.

"I think in those situations you just really want to get on the board so sometimes you aren't as patient with the ball," Conant said. "I think it was just really not having much time with the ball and then hastily making decisions when we did have it."

The two goals FUS did score came from junior middie Lauren Noce in the middle of the first half and then from freshman middie Mary Krolicki with just 21 seconds left in the game.

The team now has one game left in their season, a home matchup against Medaille College on Sunday, April 26 at 1pm.