VOLLEYBALL
Junior Julie Lauro scored kills on 13 of 15 attempts in the fourth and fifth games as Muhlenberg came from behind to defeat Washington and finish its 2004 season on a positive note.

Lauro made four errors in the third game, which the Shorewomen (14-15, 3-7) won, 30-21, to take a 2-1 lead, but was nearly flawless in the next two. The Mules (11-14, 5-5) handily won Game 4, 30-19, and eked out a 15-12 victory in the decisive fifth game.

Lauro finished the match with 26 kills and ended the season with a school-record average of 4.99 kills per game, toppling the old mark of 4.60. Lauro’s 12 digs gave her a career total of 1,001, making her the third player in team history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.

Freshman Jess Anselmi closed out her first season with a career-high 14 kills, and sophomore Kate Haggerty added 11.

Sophomore Kristin Caparro tallied a career-high 14 digs. Junior Jen Weist led the defense with 28 digs, becoming the first player in team history with two 400-dig seasons.

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WOMEN’S SOCCER
Ursinus scored twice in the final seven minutes to pull out a 3-2 win against Muhlenberg in a playoff preview game.

For the second year in a row, the Mules (10-5-2, 6-3-1) and Bears (11-6-1, 6-4) will meet in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs. The game will be played at Muhlenberg on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at a time to be announced.

Senior Rebecca Armstrong put Muhlenberg ahead, 2-1, by converting a penalty kick early in the second half. It also made her the ninth player in CC history with 100 career points.

Freshman Ashley Reed scored her fifth goal of the season for the Mules.

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FIELD HOCKEY
Washington scored midway through the second half to clinch a Centennial Conference playoff berth with a 1-0 victory. Muhlenberg ended its season 9-8 overall, 4-6 in the CC.

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The Mules had to wait until Saturday night to find out if that was enough

Kliewer has three goals and an assist in the last three games.

to put them in the Centennial Conference playoffs, and it was. Swarthmore defeated Haverford, 3-1, to give Muhlenberg the fifth and final playoff spot.

The Mules (8-7-2, 5-3-1) finished in a three-way tie for fourth place with Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg. In head-to-head-to-head competition, F&M was 1-0-1, Muhlenberg 1-1 and Gettysburg 0-1-1. That left Gettysburg as the odd team out and F&M as the fourth seed.

Had Haverford upset Swarthmore, it would have resulted in a four-way tie for third place, and Muhlenberg would have drawn the short straw when the tiebreakers were applied.

The Mules will travel to Lancaster for the second time this season to face Franklin & Marshall in the first round of the CC playoffs on Wednesday. The Diplomats won the first meeting, 4-2.

This appears to be a different Muhlenberg team. The Mules ended the regular season with a five-game winning streak, averaging nearly four goals per game in the five victories and shutting out their last four CC opponents. Muhlenberg breezed past an Ursinus (3-14, 0-9) squad that had battled playoff teams Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore to one-goal losses its last two times out.

Freshman Jonathan Kliewer opened the scoring just 64 seconds into the game, and closed it just 145 seconds from the end. In between, junior Adam Milberg and freshman Wesley Deininger scored goals.

Junior Christopher King assisted on Kliewer’s first goal and has now recorded a point in six straight matches. Junior James Henshaw, who assisted Deininger, has scored in four straight.

The win clinched the Mules’ 19th consecutive non-losing season. That is the 14th-longest active streak in Division III.

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