Falco Scores in Firebird Farewell; UDC Women’s Lacrosse Falls in Season Finale at Queens

FLUSHING, NY – Four-year captain and former starting goalkeeper Dani Falco scored her first career collegiate goal in her farewell game as a Firebird, but the University of the District of Columbia women's lacrosse team was defeated, 15-5 by East Coast Conference foe Queens College in its 2017 season finale on the road Saturday afternoon.

Falco was one of four different goal scorers on the day for UDC, including sophomore midfielder Vanessa Valentine with a team-high two goals. Valentine finishes the season as the team's leading scorer with 18 goals. Sophomore midfielder Amy Rock, who handed out two assists today, finishes with a single-season UDC record and ties last year's combined team total with nine assists this season.

Queens College (2-10, 1-5 ECC) featured seven different goal scorers, including attack Mary Pat Gibble with a game-high five points on four goals and one assist. Midfielders Patriece Ausili and Aleah Abdellatif each scored a hat trick as well, and attack Alyssa Walker pitched in three points on one goal and two assists.

Defensively, UDC's freshman goalkeeper Jada Foy had a season-high 15 saves on 30 shots faced – her 2^nd highest save percentage of the season at 50-percent. She has had 10 or more saves in seven games this season, and she now holds a single-season UDC record with 116 saves this year.

Senior midfielder Aaliyah Carter, also playing her final collegiate game, was very active with two caused turnovers, three ground balls and two draw controls. She also added one goal and one assist, offensively.

Queens' Basma Attieh earned the win in goal as she stopped seven of 12 shots faced in 55 minutes of work. Abby Edwards came on for the final five minutes and made one save.

UDC was 8-of-9 on clear attempts today and had a season-low 15 turnovers coupled with nine draw control wins and eight ground balls. Queens, meanwhile, won 13 draw controls and 14 ground balls, out-shot UDC 38-16, and converted 4-of-8 free-position shots while holding the Firebirds scoreless on three attempts. The Knights were 14-of-15 on clear attempts and only turned the ball over 15 times as well.

The Knights struck first, one-and-a-half minutes into the action, on an unassisted goal by Nicole Moniello, and they added a 2^nd goal a little over five minutes later on a free-position shot by Lauren Gentile.  Valentine scored off of an assist by Carter just before the 21-minute mark to make it 2-1, which is where the score stood for a little over nine minutes. Beginning with Alyssa Walker's goal at 11:57, however, the Knights went on a 5-0 charge to end the half and took a 7-1 lead at intermission.

Queens extended its run into the 2^nd half where it scored three straight goals in under three minutes to extend the lead to 10-1. Carter scored an unassisted goal just before the 27-minute mark, but the Knights tacked on three straight goals to take their largest lead of the day, 13-2.

At that point, UDC rallied for three straight goals, one apiece by senior attack Jazmin Lopez, Valentine and Falco, but Queens added two more goals after that to make it a 10-goal victory, 15-5.

Head Coach Melynda Brown will return nine of 12 student-athletes on this year's roster for the program's 5^th season in Spring 2018.