April 20, 2003

NEWARK, DE -- Jill Toomey tied a school record with nine points and Kristy Manas dished out a school-record five assists as George Mason pulled into a three-way tie for third place in the Colonial Athletic Association with an 18-4 win over the University of Delaware in women's lacrosse action Sunday afternoon at Rullo Stadium.

Old Dominion and James Madison have secured the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, in next weekend's conference tournament, to be held at Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA. George Mason, Delaware and Hofstra are all tied for third place with identical 4-3 conference marks. CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager will determine which two teams advance to the conference tournament from a random draw which will take place Monday morning in Richmond, VA. None of the tiebreakers could determine which teams should qualify.

Toomey scored seven goals and added two assists while Lisa Hagen added five goals and Stacy Berger notched two for the Patriots, who evened their overall record at 7-7. The Blue Hens, meanwhile, have lost three straight games by a combined score of 45-18 and fall to 7-8 with the loss.

Sophomore Erin Edell scored twice for Delaware while senior Nikki Kucharski scored her 50th career goal and sophomore Diana Hall also scored.

The Patriots jumped out to a 2-0 lead 11 minutes into the contest on goals by Hagen and Toomey, but the Blue Hens rallied to tie the score on two goals by Edell, the second coming at 10:54. George Mason went onto score the next 14 goals and put the game out of reach, holding the Blue Hens scoreless for 38:07 before Hall broke the drought with 2:47 remaining in the contest.

Delaware freshman goalkeeper Patrice Hughes recorded 10 saves on 31 shots while sophomore Lauren Burtch made one save in relief. Meg Dentler of George Mason allowed just two goals on 22 shots, making 14 saves before Carolyn Whittenberg came on with 5:58 to go in the game.

GEORGE MASON      6   12    18
DELAWARE          2    2     4

Scoring:
Delaware - Erin Edell 2 goals; Diana Hall 1 goal, 1 assist; Nikki
Kucharski 1 goal; Shannon Kron 1 assist; Libby Pforr 1 assist. George
Mason - Jill Toomey 7 goals, 2 assists; Kristy Manas 3 goals, 5 assist;
Lisa Hagen 5 goals; Stacy Berger 2 goals; Kate Scott 1 goal.

Saves: Delaware - 11 (Patrice Hughes 53:16 minutes played - 15 goals
allowed, 10 saves; Lauren Burtch 6:44 minutes played - 3 goals allowed,
1 save); GMU - 7 (Meg Dentler 54:02 minutes player - 2 goals allowed, 14
saves; Carolyn Whittenberg 5:58 minutes played - 2 goals allowed, 2
saves). Shots: Delaware - 26, GMU - 35; Groundballs: Delaware - 24, GMU
- 26;  Draw Controls: Delaware - 15, GMU - 8; Caused Turnovers: Delaware
- 7, GMU 9. Attendance: 400.