SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. – The Bloomsburg lacrosse team got back in the win column with a 21-12 victory over Shepherd Saturday afternoon. The Huskies improved to 7-9 on the year and 3-8 in conference play while the Rams dropped to 4-10 and 1-9 in PSAC East action.
 
Junior Brianna Austin (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) led the way for the Huskies with a pair of goals and four assists while sophomore Marykate Sitko (Pennsburg, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) finished the day with five goals and an assist to go with two draw controls and two ground balls. Mia Boccippio (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) had four goals and Kayla Stressman (Harleysville, Pa./North Penn) finished the day with three goals and a team-best nine draw control wins.
 
Emily Simpson (North Wales, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) paced the Huskies with three ground balls and three draw control wins to go with two assists while Mikayla Viola (Allentown, Pa./Emmaus) and Lauren Foley (Schwenksville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) had three ground balls.
 
Defensively, Reiley Knize (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton) led with two caused turnovers and two ground balls.
 
Foley finished the day with 14 saves in cage to earn the win for Bloomsburg.
 
Boccippio got the Huskies on the board early with her 22^nd goal of the season just three minutes into action. Stressman followed with her 24^th of the year to give Bloomsburg a 2-0 lead with 10:41 to play in the first. The Rams answered with 6:32 to play in the first. Shepherd won the following the draw control, but Foley made a save on the next Rams shot to preserve the Huskies' lead. Sitko pushed the Bloomsburg lead to 3-1 with 5:26 to play before another Shepherd goal cut the lead to 3-2. Alexis Guzylak (Corning, N.Y./Horseheads) scored with 3:22 to go to give Bloomsburg a 4-2 lead in the final minutes of the first quarter.
 
The Rams used a four-goal run to take their first lead of the game, 6-4, with 12:56 to go in the second quarter. Tori Bruno (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) scored her ninth of the year at the 10:29 mark to halt the Rams run and kick off a three-goal run for the Huskies that included a score from Payton Bettys (Palm, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) and Knize, to give the Huskies a 7-6 lead. The Rams tied the game at 7-7 with 4:43 to play but the Huskies used five unanswered goals to take control of the game.
 
With 4:02 to play before halftime, Sitko scored on a player-up opportunity for the Huskies to give them an 8-7 lead and Boccippio scored back-to-back goals just 10 seconds apart in the final seconds of the second quarter to push Bloomsburg's lead to 10-7. Stressman opened the third quarter with her 25^th of the season and Knize gave the Huskies a 12-7 lead with 9:59 to play in the third.
 
The Rams sandwiched a pair of goals around one from Austin to cut the Huskies' lead to 13-9 with 6:18 to go in the third but the Huskies used a three-goal run from Stressman, Sitko, and Austin to take a 16-9 lead with 14:47 to play in the fourth.
 
Shepherd's Katherine Stevenson cut the Rams' deficit to 16-10 with 14:21 to play. Sitko and Bettys went back-to-back to extend the lead to 18-10 before the Rams scored two-straight to cut the lead to 18-12 with 5:48 to play.
 
The Huskies ended the game with three-straight goals from Guzylak, Sitko, and Boccippio to seal the 21-12 win.
 
The Rams won the draw control battle 19-17 and held a 30-23 advantage in ground balls. The Huskies and Rams were even with 25 turnovers each while Foley made 14 saves to the Rams' 5.
 
The Huskies wrap up the 2025 season next Saturday when they host West Chester for a 1:00 p.m. contest at Steph Pettit Stadium.