The AU Women's Lacrosse team beat the Villanova Wildcats, 6-3, in a defensive battle Saturday afternoon at Villanova.
Junior attacker Rebecca Copeland scored three goals for AU, matching the entire Wildcat output, to lead the Eagles to their fifth victory in their last seven contests.
The win was a change of pace for the Eagles, who have relied heavily on their offense, scoring at least 12 goals in three of their past four games.
Their defensive intensity in this game was the best so far this season, aside from last Saturday's 17-3 thrashing of Lafayette.
"The defense really held it together for us today," said sophomore goalkeeper Kathleen Finnegan. "We couldn't score well today, but the defense came through for us."
In addition to Copeland's scoring, senior defender Lynn Brandon scored twice and freshman midfielder Caitlin Gorman scored the other Eagle goals. Sophomore midfielder Moriah Linnell and senior attacker Lindsay Cartin both dished out two assists.
Bess Hanley, Becky Gardner and Lauren Ferrara, who all scored once, led Villanova. Amy Rocap had an assist.
The Eagles started the game out in solid fashion, as they opened the scoring less than two minutes into the first half on Copeland's first goal, assisted by Cartin. Two goals in the final 12 minutes of the half gave the Eagles a 3-0 lead going into the half.
"It was great that we held them scoreless in the first half," Finnegan said. "Even though they scored in the second half, we didn't let down, just gave up some fluke goals."
AU scored the first two goals of the second half to take a commanding 5-0 lead before Gardner's unassisted goal with 20 minutes remaining put VU on the board.
Finnegan had eight saves on 11 shots to bounce back from Tuesday's shaky performance in a 13-12 loss to the University of Maryland- Baltimore County.
"This was a good bounce-back game for us," Finnegan said. "It's good to win a conference game, but we have to step up and practice offensively and maintain our defensive intensity."
The win kept the Eagles atop the Patriot League standings as they improve their record to 5-5 overall, and 4-0 in the PL. Meanwhile, Villanova dropped to 1-10 overall and 0-3 in league play.
Next up for the Eagles is a Tuesday afternoon game at Richmond before they return home to face Monmouth next Saturday. A big game looms with second-place Colgate (3-0 in the PL) on April 24 in Hamilton, N.Y.
