WASHINGTON, Pa. – Washington & Jefferson survived a second-half rally from the Franciscan women's lacrosse team as the Presidents defeated the Lady Barons 12-7 in the opening round of the 2019 Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament, Tuesday evening.
 
Trailing 11-3 with 20 minutes to play in the second half, the Lady Barons found their scoring groove. Sophomore Margaret McKee caused a turnover with 19:46 to play and Franciscan successfully finished the clear. With a little more than half of their possession clock left, head coach Maura Conant drew up a play and the Lady Barons went back to work. Senior Elizabeth McEntee fed the ball to freshman Grace Deegan in traffic and she went top shelf to cut the President lead to 11-4 with 18:50 to play.
 
Just under four minutes later, Franciscan completed another successful clear and Deegan found the back of the net once again, this time thanks to an assist from senior Carly McDonald. With 11:05 to play, sophomore Maria Hilkert made it a five-goal game. Deegan took an initial shot that was saved by the W&J goalie but the ball ricocheted back into the field where Deegan was able to scoop it up and quickly flip to Hilkert for the goal.
 
With 9:31 to play, Franciscan was awarded a free position shot and instead of taking it herself, senior Elizabeth Dawyot passed the ball to McDonald who buried the seventh-goal of the game for Franciscan to pull within four.
 
Franciscan seemed to cut the deficit to three at 11-8 with less than five to play, but a charge called the goal back. The Presidents scored their final goal with 1:09 to play on a free position shot to seal the 12-7 win.
 
Franciscan jumped out to an early lead in the first with two goals in under two minutes but W&J used an 8-1 in the half to lead 8-3 at the break.
 
Deegan led the Lady Barons with three goals, two assists, six draw controls and four ground ball. In her first season with the Lady Barons, the Akron, OH native set the program's single-season goal and point record with 55 goals and 67 in her 15 games.

Last week, McDonald set the program's career scoring record and added to her point total today with three goals and an assist. McDonald finishes her career with 128 goals, 55 assists, and a program-best 183 points.
 
Senior Elizabeth McEntee had a pair of assists to push her career total to 171, and finishes her career as second on the all-time points list and first in assists with 89. Senior Elizabeth Jordan finished the day with four ground balls and a caused turnover. She is the all-time leader it ground balls (185) and caused turnovers (141) at Franciscan.

Dawyot finished her career on the lacrosse field with 57 goals and 23 assists in 25 games for the Lady Barons while senior Treise McCarthy had one assist tonight to finish her career with 42 goals, 25 assists, 67 points, 77 ground balls, and 31 caused turnovers.
 
In net for the Lady Barons, senior Brittany Bain made 11 saves. For her career, Bain graduates as the all-time leader in saves (474) and wins (23), while finishing second in save percentage (.493) and goals against average (11.09).
 
Franciscan wraps up the season 8-7 while going 5-2 in its first season in the PAC. The Lady Barons made school history as the first team to qualify for the PAC in any sport in school history.