The Westminster girls lacrosse team jumped out to an early lead but had to hold off a stubborn visiting South Carroll squad, 15-12, last night.
The win improves Westminster to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the county. South Carroll drops to 3-5 and remains winless in the county at 0-3.
The Owls jumped out to a 6-0 first half lead but saw the lead cutto 11-10 with 11 minutes left in the game before closing the door onthe visiting Cavaliers with four straight goals.
"Our game plan was to get out to an early lead, and we did just that," Westminster coach Suzanne Davie Peters said.
"We really put it all together tonight with some nice passing on offense. Our defense has been strong throughout the season, but our offense really came through for us tonight."
Tinah Houck and Amy Shipp did most of the damage offensively for the Owls. Houck finished the night with five goals, while Shipp had four. Judie Marcus chipped in two goals and a pair of assists.
The Owls marched down the field six times in the game's first five minutes and had a 6-0 lead to show for it.
Shipp got things started for the Owls with just over a minute gone by. Beth Richardson scored less than 30 seconds later, and Houck scored three straight goals to push the lead to 5-0.
After Kara Hedges made it 6-0, South Carrollcut the Owls' lead to 6-3 on goals by Patti Duffy, Kristen Kinter and Candice Blanchette.
Shipp scored her her second goal to boost the Westminster lead to 7-3. The Owls led 8-5 at halftime.
The Cavaliers could have gotten closer, but Westminster goalie Danielle Fishercame up with three straight saves late in the half. She finished thenight with 17.
"Danielle's done a nice job for us all season," Peters said.
The Cavs scored six of the first eight goals of the second half to pull to within 11-10 with 11 minutes remaining, but Shippscored at the nine-minute mark and Becky Raffel and Houck followed with goals to put the game out of reach at 14-10.
Blanchette finished with five goals to lead the Cavaliers.
"I think the slow start really hurt us," South Carroll coach Stacy Stem said. "We came out flat and didn't play our best. We have a little break, so we'll take a couple days off and try to get things back on track next week."