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Fairleigh Dickinson Ends Messiah's Win Streak With 16-9 Victory
Freshman Kara Geiman scored four goals, but the Falcons registered just two assists in Saturday's loss.

Madison, NJ — The Messiah College women’s lacrosse team was unable to snap a Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham winning streak Saturday afternoon in MAC Conference play, falling to the host Devils by a 16-9 score.

Messiah (4-4, 1-1) saw its own three-game winning streak come to an end, as the Falcons were outshot by a 44 to 22 count and doubled up in total draw controls 18 to nine. Still, Messiah had its opportunities, becoming efficient in its possessions to pull within a 13-8 difference with just under 20 minutes to play.

Sadly, that was as close as the Falcons would get, as FDU-Florham (9-1, 3-0) successfully extended its winning streak to eight games overall while remaining unbeaten in league play.

“We showed today that individually we are strong but you cannot beat good teams individually,” said Heather Greer, Messiah head coach. “We have to work better together and we have to get or motion attack up and running. FDU did a really good job taking us out of our comfort zone offensively, and we struggled a bit.”

The host Devils scored twice to open the game before freshman Kara Geiman notched an unassisted tally 10 minutes into the action. Following swapped goals over the next minute — Geiman scored again with 11:12 elapsed — Fairleigh Dickinson put on its most impressive stretch of the afternoon, scoring three straight goals in the span of five minutes to open up a 6-2 lead.

Yet another score from Geiman would provide a brief reprieve with just over 12 minutes to go in the first half, but the Devils responded with another three straight goals to go back up by a 9-3 count.

Messiah would trail by an 11-5 score at halftime before scoring three of the second half’s first five goals, pulling to within a 13-8 difference. Gieman led the charge with a score just two and a half minutes into the final period, while freshman Megan Bovenzi and senior Jessica VanHook followed with goals in the 13th minute-mark.

FDU would rally to score three of the final four goals, however, eventually coasting to the seven-goal difference.

Geiman’s four goals led Messiah, while Bovenzi scored three. VanHook added two scores, while junior Brianne Brennan led the team with four ground balls.

Messiah finished with just two assists on the game.

“We have some girls who love to go isolation and so far it has worked for us, but FDU was ready and collapsed really well on us defensively,” Greer said. “We couldn’t get it going in the midfield, either, and it was just a struggle for us.”

The Falcons will next take a brief hiatus from league play, as the team will host Rowan University Tuesday. Game time is set for 4:30 p.m.