For The Dialog
WILMINGTON – In a battle between two of Delaware’s top girls lacrosse teams on Saturday, third-ranked Archmere held off second-ranked Ursuline, 10-9, at Serviam Field.
The Auks started slow, finding themselves trailing, 4-0, as Ursuline junior Madelyn Hughes scored two goals, including the 100th of her career. After a timeout, Archmere responded with a vengeance, running off seven unanswered goals of their own. Sophomore Kennedy Murphy had three of those tallies, while seniors Amanda Olsen and Kate Payne added one each.
After Ursuline cut the lead to 7-6 at halftime, Archmere ran a patient offense in the second half, getting two early scores from Payne to stretch the lead to four. The Raiders would get a goal from Hughes to cut it to 9-7 with 15 minutes left in the game, but a few minutes later Murphy struck again to make it 10-7.
Hughes added her fourth goal of the contest to make it a two-goal deficit again, and Ursuline received a great opportunity to cut further into the lead with fewer than five minutes to play. A hard foul by Archmere led to the Auks’ fourth yellow card of the day, putting them a player down the rest of the contest. Raiders senior Hannah Gladnick scored on the power play with 4:32 left to cut it to 10-9. But the Auks defense would hold off the Raiders in the last four minutes thanks to junior goalie Kelley Lucey, who finished with 10 saves.
Archmere improved to 10-2, bouncing back from a loss Friday to Ss. Peter and Paul (Md). The play next on Thursday at St. Thomas More at 4 p.m. Urusline dropped to 8-1 playing for a third consecutive day. The Raiders host Sussex Tech on Monday at 3:45 p.m.
