SCRANTON, Pa. – Junior Jennifer Williams (Branchburg, N.J./Somerville) scored a career-high six goals and The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team (9-1) advanced to the Landmark Conference Championship game with a 19-7 victory over the Moravian Greyhounds (6-5) on Wednesday afternoon at Weiss Field in Scranton.

The No. 2 seed Royals will head to our Nation's Capitol to battle top seeded Catholic in Saturday's title game. This marks the fifth straight year that Scranton and Catholic will meet in the Landmark Conference championship game.

The Cardinals were an 18-6 winner over Susquehanna in Wednesday's other semifinal.

Williams scored four of her six goals in the first half and surpassed her previous career-high of three goals that had been set on three occasions.

Moravian grabbed an early 1-0 lead, but Williams and the Royals scored four of the next five goals to take a 5-1 lead with 20:46 left in the first half. The Greyhounds cut the deficit to two goals on a couple of occasions at 6-4 and 7-5, but sophomore Caroline Miller (Huntington, N.Y./Elwood-John H. Glenn) and junior Jaclyn McCusker (River Edge, N.J./River Dell) both found the back of the net in the final minute of the half to give Scranton a 9-5 advantage at the half.

The Royals held a 10-6 lead with 25:04 remaining before freshman Erin Reich (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) ignited a seven goal run that was capped by a goal from Miller at the 7:51 mark to make it a 17-6 game. Sophomore Emma Fitzpatrick (Glen Head, N.Y./North Shore) contributed two goals and two assists during the run for the Royals. McCusker capped the scoring with 0:36 left in the game for the hosts.

Williams paced Scranton with her career-best six goals, while Fitzpatrick added her first career hat trick to go along with the two helpers on the afternoon. McCusker, Miller and junior Amanda Whelan (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) all added multi-goal games for the Royals and four other players scored one goal: Reich, seniors Raegen Dunn (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Township) and Jill Henson (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Christian Brothers Academy) and sophomore Erin Wheeler (Cherry Hill, N.J./Camden Catholic).

Junior Emily Schum (East Hanover, N.J./Morris Catholic) led the way defensively with four ground balls, four draw controls and three caused turnovers, while senior Lauren Devlin (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) made 11 saves in net for the Royals.

Meaghan McMullan and Danielle Sullivan had two goals apiece to lead Moravian.

Stay tuned to athletics.scranton.edu later in the week for a full preview of Saturday's Landmark Conference Championship game at Catholic.

--ROYALS--