SCRANTON, Pa. – Junior Grace Lane (Long Beach, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) scored five goals and senior Erin Reich (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) added four as The top-seeded University of Scranton women's lacrosse team (15-3) pulled away from the No. 5 seed Juniata College Eagles (14-5) in Landmark Conference semifinal action on Thursday at Weiss Field in Scranton.

With the victory, the Royals advance to Saturday's Landmark Championship game and will host No. 2 seed Catholic at Weiss Field with start time yet to be determined. Catholic was a 16-1 winner over Susquehanna in Thursday's other semifinal.

This marks the eighth straight year that the Royals and Cardinals will do battle in the conference title game.

Scranton led 7-5 at halftime and then outscored Juniata by a 7-2 margin in the second half to earn the semifinal victory.

Senior Kayleigh Stalter (Lynbrook, N.Y./Lynbrook) got the hosts on the board just 2:02 into the game, but Juniata then scored the next two goals to take a 2-1 lead before a goal from freshman Jillian Lopez (Sayville, N.Y./St. Anthony's) tied things at two apiece after one. Lane struck for two goals just 1:16 apart in the early stages of the second period to give Scranton a 4-3 edge and Reich added two goals in a 0:58 span later in the period that helped make it a 7-5 game at the half.

A goal from Lane and two more from Reich in the first eight minutes of the third quarter extended the lead to 10-5 for the time being. However, the Eagles did not go quietly and battled back to cut the lead to 10-7 before Lane found the back of the net with eight seconds left for an 11-7 advantage. The Royals were able to hold Juniata scoreless in the fourth quarter and used goals from Lane, Lopez and Stalter to extend the lead.

The duo of Lane and Reich combined to score nine of Scranton's 14 goals on the day, while Lopez and Stalter added two apiece. Senior Devyn Tanajewski (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) added four assists and five draw controls.

Lopez and fellow freshman Eileen Hewitt (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) each registered five draw controls apiece and the former also collected five ground balls.

Defensively, senior Karina Roettger (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) notched a game-high four caused turnovers and junior Lauren Boldis (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun) made six saves in net.

Juniata was led by Grace Gibbs with three goals and an assist.

A full preview of Saturday's championship game will be posted tomorrow at athletics.scranton.edu.

--ROYALS--