Jack Morgan | staff writer

Since starting off Atlantic 10 Conference play at Rooney Field with a win over George Washington, Duquesne lacrosse split its last two matchups last week. It won on the road at La Salle last Wednesday before dropping one to UMass on Saturday.

On March 12, the Dukes traveled east to McCarthy Stadium in Philadelphia to take on La Salle. Duquesne got off to a hot start, scoring the first three goals with Corinne Webb netting two of them. Webb responded with her second unassisted goal after La Salle’s Alana Lathan put the Explorers on the board. The Dukes rode the high wave to take an 8-1 lead with 7:26 to play in the second quarter. But after that, it was all La Salle for the next 22 minutes of gametime.

Duquesne was outscored 9-1 in that span and by the end of the third, La Salle had a 10-9 lead. During the stretch, Lathan scored five of her six goals in the game and Sam Klein pitched in two of her own. In a fitting ending to a game riddled with big runs, the Dukes shut out the Explorers in the final frame. They took the lead 11-10 with 8:46 to go thanks to a goal from Haley Reeck. From that point on, Duquesne scored three more goals to win 14-10 and get its second conference win of the season after besting George Washington 11-10 on March 8.

Megan LaBorne ended the game with seven saves in the win for the Dukes. Meanwhile, Explorers goalie Brooke Nelson stopped 12 shots in relief of Mary Babbage, who saw only 13 minutes of action. Nelson was designated with the loss, however, after giving up the remaining seven goals.

UMass was the next opponent on the two-game road trip for Duquesne on Saturday, and things went sideways quickly. The Dukes gave up seven unanswered goals to start the game, with Minutewomen attacker Kassidy Morris getting things going with a hat trick in the first quarter. The first six goals for UMass were scored in the first 4:14 of the game. Chelsea Evans scored the first Duquesne goal shortly thereafter, but it was still a six-goal difference and the Minutewomen responded with another three-goal spurt to go up 10-1 with 14:26 to go in the first half.

Addison Scanlon netted her third goal of the year to cut the lead to 8, but Duquesne was already drowning. A Chloe Holmes goal after three more UMass scores made it 13-3 at halftime.

The second half painted a familiar picture, with the lead stretching to as high as 13 with 1:02 left in the third. There weren’t many positives to take from this game for the Dukes, but they did outscore the Minutewomen in the final frame by a margin of 2-1. After UMass brought the lead to 19-5 off a goal from Dylan Lyons to start the fourth, Tristen Chang got to work. She scored the two goals in the fourth quarter for Duquesne, with the first coming at the 9:20 mark of the quarter. She scored another unassisted goal with under six minutes to go and that set the final score at 19-7. It was the final A-10 event a Duquesne team in any sport played at UMass, as the latter is moving to the Mid-American Conference over the summer.

LaBorne only played 17:56 in this game, and Korrigan Sweeney got a chance to play the other 42:04. She allowed 14 goals on 24 shots. UMass also got the chance to use multiple goalies. Catrina Tobin played 45 minutes and allowed five goals on eight shots. Ava Lori Hudgins got the other 15 minutes and had three saves on five shots.

As it stands in the conference, Duquesne still has work to do to secure a spot in the A-10 Tournament, but it is well on its way with a 2-1 conference record and seven games to go. With four at Rooney Field at three elsewhere, the Dukes will knock out two of those remaining home games this week with a Saturday afternoon contest against VCU at 1 p.m. and a Wednesday afternoon tilt with St. Bonaventure at 3 p.m.