HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 27, 2019)  – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's lacrosse team jumped out to a three-goal lead less than five minutes into the game en route to a 17-5 victory over Hartwick College Saturday to clinch a spot in the Empire 8 Conference Tournament.

Junior Kyra Bednarski continued her assault on the program's record book, totaling seven goals and two assists in the first half, to bring her career total to 286. The Syracuse, New York native moved into third place on the program's career scoring list with her final point of the day.

Junior Hannah Condren totaled four goals and classmate Emily Shanklin added a goal and three assists for the Ducks, who won their second straight to close out the regular season with an 8-9 mark. The victory over Hartwick pushed Stevens' conference record to 6-2 and kept the Ducks in a three-way tie for second place with Utica and Nazareth, who were also victorious on the day of the regular season. Utica ultimately claimed the second seed in the tournament via a tiebreaker and by virtue of its 11-8 victory over the Golden Flyers on Senior Day, the Ducks slid into the third seed and will look to avenge an earlier loss to the Pioneers. St. John Fisher, winners of 15 straight games, won the league's regular season title and will host the two-day tournament in Pittsford, New York next weekend. Stevens has reached the conference tournament every season since joining the conference for the 2008 campaign.

"I'm not sure I could be prouder of this team than I am right now," said head coach Karen Shaddock. "We have used every challenge this season as an opportunity to grow and today we showed how much we have grown as a team. It was a great game and a rewarding game to coach."

"Overall, we are very happy with our win today," the first-year head coach continued. "We are excited about our progress from the beginning of the season until now and look forward to a week of practice focusing on next weekend's playoffs."

Hailey Pooler had a pair of goals and an assist for Hartwick, who closed the season 7-9 overall and 4-4 in league games. The Hawks dropped each of their last two games and Stevens' victory prevented Hartwick from reaching the postseason for the first time since 2004. The Ducks have won all 12 meetings with the Hawks.

Freshman Morgan Westerby had three goals and an assist and sophomore Haley Hanrahan and freshman Natalie Fitzpatrick each collected a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who averaged just under 15 goals per game over eight E8 contests. Freshman Gale Bennett dished out an assist to round out Stevens' scoring. 

Sophomore Peyton Taylor drew her seventh straight start and made a game-changing save in the first half in earning her sixth victory of the season. Sophomore Olivia Demetres and freshman Lauren Cunniff combined for three saves over the final 23 minutes to close out the victory. Hartwick's Ashley Jablonowski, who entered the game fourth in Division III in save percentage, allowed 15 goals to take the loss. 

"I am very happy with all three goalies," Shaddock commented. "They have all been working [extremely] hard, so it was great to see them find success in the game today."

Shanklin earned the game-opening draw control and the Bednarski put the Ducks on the board just 40 seconds later, with her 60th goal of the year. Shanklin captured the ensuing draw and Stevens had three opportunities to double its lead, but Jablonowski stopped a pair of shots and Shanklin rang a free-position shot off the post.

Hartwick successfully cleared the ball, but Pooler threw the ball away to return possession to the Ducks. Jablonowski stopped Bednarski for her third save of the game to begin Hartwick's counterattack, however Stevens' pressure in the midfield forced a failed clear and Bednarski drew a foul from Katie Weaver and converted a free-position shot to hand the Ducks a two-goal advantage. The Ducks forced Hartwick into turnovers on six of their 20 clearing attempts on the afternoon. 

Shanklin corralled the next draw to again give the Ducks possession. The Berkley, Michigan native finished with nine draws on the day. Consecutive Hawk fouls led to another free-position attempt and Bednarski beat Jablonowski with a double move to increase Stevens' lead to three.

Consecutive goals extended the Ducks' advantage to five, before Rachel Hedden and Pooler beat Taylor to bring Hartwick within three. 

With their lead nearly cut in half, the Ducks found themselves down a player following a yellow card. Hartwick began its offense series with a successful clear and methodically worked the ball into scoring position and the Hawks' Emma Knapp received a pass in point-blank range and Taylor was up to the task, stopping Hartwick's second-leading scorer to preserve the three-goal advantage.

Stevens killed off the yellow card and Bednarski scored twice in a 66-second span to push the lead to five. Hartwick continued to have difficulty clearing the ball, with Condren beating Jablonowski after a turnover for her 18th tally of the season. The Ducks forced 16 Hartwick miscues on the day.

Condren netted her second of the day and Bednarski beat Jablonowski for the seventh time with just four seconds left in the opening half to give Stevens a commanding 10-2 lead at the intermission. The junior attackwoman has totaled five or more points on nine different occasions and has totaled nine points in each of her last two contests.

Westerby converted a Shanklin pass to open second-half scoring. The Marlton, New Jersey native finished with a career-high four points. Condren completed her hat trick to push the lead to double figures and force running time. The Ducks added five more tallies to push the lead to 15 before Hartwick scored three times over the final nine minutes to provide the final margin. All totaled, following Taylor save, the Ducks scored 12 unanswered goals to put the game out of reach.

"Kyra played phenomenally, with nine points in the first half, and set the tone for us offensively," Shaddock shared. "We had so many others step up and play big roles for us."

"Hannah played fantastic and impacted the play on both ends of the field, especially on the offensive side," Shaddock added. 

Stevens outshot Hartwick 37-12, including a decisive 23-6 advantage in the first half. The Ducks continue to be highly efficient in their shooting as 28 of the team's 37 attempt registered on goal. Bednarski led all players with 12 shots, while Shanklin took eight. Pooler, Knapp and GinaMarie Wilson each took three attempts to pace the Hawks. A spirited defensive effort helped Stevens hold Wilson, who entered the game as Hartwick's leading scorer with 45 goals, to just a single goal. 

Stevens forced 16 Hartwick turnovers, while committing 13. Fitzpatrick matched a season high with four caused turnovers, while Shanklin and freshman Meredith Conlin each caused two. Kaplan matched Fitzpatrick with four caused turnovers to lead the Hawks.

Stevens' offensive success often began with the draw control, where Shanklin helped the Ducks achieve an 18-5 advantage in the statistic. Westerby earned five draws, while Fitzpatrick and sophomore Haley Hanrahan each earned two. Knapp topped Hartwick with two.

"Haley, Emily and Morgan worked extremely hard on the draw to gain extra possessions for us, which was crucial to our success," Shaddock said. "Defensively, [Regan Littell], Hannah and Meredith came up with big caused turnovers in the first half. [Tori Bruce], Fitz, Morgan, [Kayla Buell] and [Sam Gajda] did a great job working together to limit the number of good looks Hartwick had on cage."

The Ducks went 3 of 8 on free-position attempts with Bednarski going 2-for-3 and Westerby converting her lone attempt. Wilson took both of Hartwick's attempts and beat Cunniff for the Hawks' final marker of the day.

Up Next: Women's Lacrosse takes on Utica Saturday in the Empire 8 Tournament semifinals. Live stats and video links will be posted to StevensDucks.com when available.

Facebook: "Like" Stevens Athletics         
Twitter: @stevensducks
Instagram: @stevensducks
Snapchat: ducks_athletics
#AllRise