HILTON HEAD, S.C.—Muhlenberg College (3-0) used a big second half to pull away from the SUNY Potsdam women's lacrosse team (1-2) for a 16-10 win in South Carolina on Thursday afternoon. Senior attack Bailey Weigel had four goals for the Bears and sophomore attack Murphy Newman (Canton, N.Y./Berkshire School) added three more. Kayleigh Thies had a game-high five goals for the Mules and Stephanie Umbach scored four.
 
Potsdam started quickly and built a 5-2 lead 14 minutes into the contest. Umbach opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game, but Weigel and sophomore attack Katie Lapinski (Canton, N.Y./Hugh C. Williams) answered with back-to-back goals to give the Bears their first lead at 20:53. Senior captain Emily Petit (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury) assisted on Lapinski's tally. Arielle Sherman tied the score just over a minute later, but Petit, Newman and Weigel scored in succession to give Potsdam its largest lead of the game. Muhlenberg ended the half with a 5-1 run and took a 7-6 lead into the break. Weigel scored the lone Bears' goal in the stretch with an assist from junior attack Bri McClusky (Watertown, N.Y./Immaculate Heart).
 
Potsdam opened the second half with two of the first three goals to draw even at 8-8. Newman scored on a pass from senior captain Margaret Wall (Rochester, N.Y./Aquinas) at 22:52. After another Thies goal 20 seconds later, Weigel scored her fourth at 21:40 with another helper from Wall. Thies scored at 20:15 to give the Mules the lead for good and begin an 8-2 run to close the game. Newman netted her third goal at 18:41 with an assist from McClusky and then McClusky closed the scoring with 19 seconds left to make it 16-10.
 
The Bears won 18 of the contest's 28 draw controls, with Weigel seizing 10 of them.
 
Potsdam returns to the North Country for its home opener against crosstown rival Clarkson on March 12 at 4 p.m.
 
(The box score is incomplete and will be updated tomorrow.)