WALTHAM, Mass. (April 19, 2016) – After building up an 8-4 halftime lead, No. 17 nationally ranked Bentley held serve in the second half of Tuesday night to deal the Franklin Pierce University women's lacrosse team a 15-11 defeat in Northeast-10 Conference play at Bentley. Three different Bentley players recorded hat tricks, while Franklin Pierce sophomore midfielder Caitlin Sweeney (Shirley, N.Y.) led all players with six goals.

With the loss, Franklin Pierce falls to 8-5 (5-5 Northeast-10), while Bentley improves to 9-5 (7-3 Northeast-10).

Bentley would build its margin up early, as the Falcons scored the game's first five goals over the opening 11 minutes. Senior attack Kelsey Howard scored twice in the run, while senior midfielder Erin O'Connor added a goal and an assist. Franklin Pierce would answer with four of the next six goals, including a goal and an assist each from senior midfielder Lauren Beville (Jamesville, N.Y.) and senior attack Nicole Dale (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), but Bentley junior attack Ciara Morley would provide the final goal of the half to give the Falcons an 8-4 halftime lead.

Each side would score seven goals in the second half en route to the 15-11 final, but Franklin Pierce would never close the gap to fewer than two goals. Sweeney provided the first two goals of the stanza to cut the deficit to 8-6, but then Bentley went on a 6-1 run over the next 11 minutes to all but put the game away. Six different players scored the six Bentley goals on the game-deciding run. Franklin Pierce scored four of the game's final six goals, including three tallies from Sweeney, but ran out of time and fell by four goals.

Sweeney added three draw controls, one ground ball and one caused turnover on the night to go with her game-best six goals. Her twin sister, fellow midfielder Briana Sweeney (Shirley, N.Y.) added three points on a goal and two assists, as did Beville. Beville tracked down a team-best four draw controls.

Howard, O'Connor and senior midfielder Meredith Hart each had three goals and one assist for four points as Bentley spread the offense around on Tuesday night. Hart corralled six draw controls, snagged three ground balls and caused one turnover along the way as well.

Junior goalkeeper Denise Hunt (Hull, Mass.) made 13 saves against 28 shots on goal and suffered the loss (8-5) in net for Franklin Pierce. Junior Lauren Ochs (9-5) made seven saves against 18 shots to pick up the win.

The Ravens return to the field on Saturday, April 23, when they travel to Pace for a Northeast-10 Conference contest. Game time is set for 3 p.m. at Pace Stadium in Pleasantville, N.Y.

Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce women's lacrosse apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).