The Union College women's lacrosse team jumped out to a 9-1 first half lead and went on to defeat William Smith 15-4 in a Liberty League game played in Schenectady, New York, this afternoon.
 
The Dutchwomen improve to 7-3 overall and remain unbeaten with 5-0 record in the Liberty League. The Herons are now 4-8 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
 
Megan Cominskey led Union with a game-high eight points on a goal and seven assists. Jackie Hogapian added four goals and Emily McGrail notched three goals and an assist. Cailin Pandolfi chipped in three goals. Natalie Sullivan picked up a game-high four ground balls and added two caused turnovers. Haley Gould won a game-high six draws. Kim Grinhaus played the opening 48:58 in goal and finished with seven saves. Jen Hughes came in for the final 11:02 and stopped one shot.
 
Sophomore Allie Flaherty scored twice for William Smith. She also won two draws and picked up two ground balls. Sophomore Alexandra Bird also notched two goals. Senior Hayley Braun and senior Rachel Hughes each scooped up a team-high three ground balls. Hughes also caused a game-high three turnovers. She is now tied for eighth on the William Smith list for career ground balls with 166. Junior Allie O'Hara played the opening 28:33 and made two saves. Sophomore Sarah Honan came in for the final 31:27 and made two saves.
 
Flaherty put the Herons on the scoreboard first 3:06 into the game off an assist from Braun. The Dutchwomen then scored the next nine goals to take an eight-goal lead into halftime. McGrail notched three goals in the run and Ciara Dudeck scored twice.
 
Bird opened the second half with her 30th goal of the season for the Herons to make it 9-2. Hagopian added back-to-back goals for the Dutchwomen to give them an 11-2 lead. Bird struck again with 20:24 remaining. Hagopian notched a free position goal for Union with 16:58 on the clock. Twelve seconds later, Flaherty recorded her second goal of the game and 12th of the season for William Smith. Union put together the next three goals for the final score. Pandolfi scored twice in the run.
 
The Dutchwomen finished with a 23-19 edge in shots, and a 12-8 advantage in draws. The Herons held the upperhand in ground balls with 18 to Union's 16. William Smith was successful on 9-of-18 clear attempts, while the Dutchwomen finished 13-of-18 tries.
 
The Herons will be back in action on Friday, April 17, when they play a Liberty League game at Clarkson at 4 p.m.