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Updated statsROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Host Nazareth withstood a second-half scoring surge from Fredonia Wednesday and held on for an 11-10 non-conference victory over the Blue Devils in a women's lacrosse game on the Golden Flyers' artificial turf field.
Nazareth improved to 6-3 overall, while Fredonia slipped to 4-4.
The Golden Flyers held a seemingly safe 10-4 lead at halftime on the strength of two goals apiece from
Haley DeVona,
Kate Rothrock,
Suzie Gray and
Gabbie Charles. Fredonia, however, outscored Nazareth 6-1 in the second half and benefitted from strong goalie play from Nicole Burrows, who made 10 of her 11 saves over the final 30 minutes.
Fredonia scored five straight goals over the first 20 minutes of the second half, including two by Audrey Yokopovich, to close within 10-9 with plenty of time left. DeVona later delivered Nazareth's only goal of the second half, an unassisted tally with 7:45 left, to give Nazareth a two-goal advantage again at 11-9. It was her third goal of the game and team-best 22nd of the season.
About four minutes after that, Fredonia's Kristie Kleine scored her second goal of the game and team-best 23rd of the season to pull the Blue Devils back within one goal at 11-10. Fredonia had opportunities to tie the score, but Nazareth goalie
Brianna Rizzari made three saves in the final 1:47 of action to preserve the victory. Rizzari finished with 10 saves, including seven in the second half.
The Golden Flyers started strong by scoring six of the game's first seven goals. DeVona had two of those goals, while Rothrock, Gray,
Carly Gates and
Jamie Martin also scored. Charles added her two goals later in the half, then goals by Gray and Rothrock 52 seconds apart extended Nazareth's lead to 10-3 with 4:20 to go in the first half. Kleine scored for Fredonia on a free-position shot with 2:50 to make the score 10-4 at the half.
Nazareth had slight advantages in shots (28-24) and ground balls (24-21) and won 16 of 23 draw controls.
Kayla McKay won six draws for Nazareth and had two ground balls.
Andrea Stekl contributed four caused turnovers.
The Golden Flyers resume their Empire 8 Conference schedule Saturday with a home game against Ithaca at 12 p.m.