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ROCHESTER, NY – The St. John Fisher women's lacrosse team scored four of the first five goals and despite a three-goal second half from Nazareth senior Kellie Byrne, the Cardinals recorded a 9-5 win in the Empire 8 game Wednesday night at Nazareth.

St. John Fisher (7-1 overall, 1-0 E8), ranked #16 in the country according to the latest IWLCA poll, scored a pair of early goals to take a 2-0 lead eight minutes into the contest.

Junior Addilys Geitner scored for Nazareth (4-4, 1-1) to trim the lead but the Cardinals added two more goals within a three minute span to extend the lead.

In the second half, the Golden Flyers used a pair of quick goals by Byrne to cut the lead to 4-3 as the senior scored twice in the first 2:17 of the period. Geitner assisted on the first goal and freshman Lauren Caldwell had the assist on the second goal.

The Cardinals answered 20 seconds later and added another goal 1:09 after that to regain the three-goal advantage.

With 12:20 remaining, St. John Fisher scored to make it 7-3 and then added an eighth goal at the 10:49 mark for its largest lead of the game at 8-3.

Less than a minute later, Byrne scored her third goal of the game and freshman Emma Robinson scored her team-leading 19th goal of the season at the 3:43 mark of the half to trim the lead to three goals at 8-5.

The Cardinals won the ensuing draw and controlled the play for a majority of the remainder of the game, adding an insurance goal with 2:29 left for the final score of 9-5.

Senior Arianna Torpey picked up a team leading five ground balls and fellow senior Brianna Rizzari finished with 15 saves in the Nazareth goal.