BLOOMSBURG – Visiting Lock Haven displayed some of the strong defense that has propelled it to the No. 2 ranking in the country on Wednesday afternoon at Steph Pettit Stadium as the Lady Eagles held off the 19th-ranked Bloomsburg University women's lacrosse team, 9-5.

Bloomsburg sees a five-game winning streak come to an end and now stands at 5-3 overall and 4-1 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference play while Lock Haven improves to 6-0, 4-0.

Bloomsburg grabbed the early lead when Brigid Kyne (Newtown Square/Marple Newtown) scored unassisted for a 1-0 edge just under five minutes in.

Lock Haven immediately responded, scoring less than 45 seconds later when Rachel Ward took a pass from Taylor Klunk for the first goal of the day from the Lady Eagles.

From there, Lock Haven controlled much of the first half with its dominance off the draw being a big reason why – the Lady Eagles won all seven draw controls during the opening 30 minutes. Lock Haven used that advantage to run off the next five goals and take a 5-1 lead to intermission.

Once again the Huskies started a half strong, however, as Julie Falk (Millersville/Penn Manor) scored 57 seconds into the second period to cut the deficit to 5-2.

Lock Haven stretched its lead early in the second half, however, with goals from Taylor Klunk and Jill Murray with Murray's free position shot goal giving LHU a 7-2 cushion.

Falk's second goal of the day made it 7-3 with 23:11 remaining, but a pair of goals from Jessica Pandolf gave Lock Haven a 9-3 advantage.

Bloomsburg then put together its strongest offensive sequence of the day, finally breaking through the Lock Haven defense with two back-to-back goals. First, Falk passed from behind the net to Marisa Moley (Phoenixville/Spring-Ford) who fired a shot past the Lock Haven keeper for a 9-4 score.

Just 14 seconds later, Falk set up the offense again, this time finding Morgan Sherriff (Downingtown/Coatesville) for the goal and still 10:05 to play.

The Huskies could get no closer, though, as Lock Haven goalkeeper Chrissy Baffuto stopped two free position attempts down the stretch to keep the Lady Eagles in control.

Pandolf scored four times to lead all players with Klunk adding four assists. Falk had two goals and two assists to pace the Huskies.

Bloomsburg kept even in shots with both teams finishing with 18 after the Huskies outshot Lock Haven by a 13-8 margin during the second half. Draw controls went heavily to Lock Haven, 12-4, while Lock Haven went 13-of-17 on clear attempts and Bloomsburg had 13 successful clears in 18 tries.

Carly Ball (Lansdale/North Penn) caused three turnovers on defense for the Huskies while Sherriff had two.

Brittney Hegarty (Rochester/Rush Henrietta) played the first half and made four saves with Abbey Burnett (Frederick, MD/Walkersville) taking over in net for the second half and turning away three shots. Baffuto made seven saves to earn the win for Lock Haven.

Bloomsburg is back in action Saturday at home vs. Slippery Rock at 1 p.m.