Watch  l  Live Stats

EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University's women's lacrosse program will make its second straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament, and the second in school history, when the Warriors take on Mercyhurst on the first round on Friday at 5 p.m. at West Chester.

ESU (13-3), the No. 2 seed, and Mercyhurst (13-6), the No. 3 seed, will look to advance to the Atlantic Region final vs. top-seeded West Chester (19-0), which will be played Saturday at 5 p.m.

ESU and Mercyhurst met a week ago in the PSAC semifinals, with Mercyhurst winning 15-12 in a rematch of the 2017 PSAC championship game won by the Warriors, 10-9.

West Chester upended Mercyhurst, 17-12, in this year's PSAC title game on Sunday.

Both the Warriors and Lakers will look for their first NCAA postseason win in program history. ESU fell 17-10 vs. Florida Tech, hosted by Florida Southern, in its first-ever NCAA trip last year. Mercyhurst has dropped first-round games in 2009 and 2016.

In this week's IWLCA DII poll, West Chester is No. 5, followed by No. 13 ESU and No. 17 Mercyhurst.

ESU had won nine straight entering the PSAC semifinals, including a 19-14 win vs. Mercyhurst on April 21 at Whitenight Field. The Warriors had won three straight vs. the Lakers before the PSAC semifinals.

The Warriors, under third-year head coach Xeni Barakos-Yoder, take a 42-11 record since 2016 into Friday's first-round game.

ESU is led by three first team All-PSAC selections in senior midfielder Chessie Rahmer, freshman attack Krista Mitarotonda (PSAC Freshman of the Year) and freshman back Kayleigh Pokrivka.

Junior midfielder Emma Rufolo was named second team, and sophomore midfielder Hana Cicerelle and sophomore goalkeeper Tatyana Petteway were third team All-PSAC selections.

Rahmer (IWLCA All-America 3rd team, All-Region 1st team), Rufolo (PSAC Athlete of the Year, All-Region 2nd team) and Petteway (IWLCA All-America 3rd team, All-Region 1st team, PSAC Freshman of the Year) all received major postseason honors as part of ESU's record-setting 2017 season, which concluded with a 17-3 mark.

Rahmer repeated on the All-PSAC first team, ranking second on the Warriors in goals (43), third in points (49), second in draw controls (59) and caused turnovers (34) and third in ground balls (52). She has 140 career goals, tied for fourth-most in school history - including 17 in the last four games, and 26 in the last seven games. She had four goals in both meetings with Mercyhurst this spring.

Mitarotonda moved into second in school history in single-season goals (57) with two in the PSAC semifinal and has added eight assists for 65 points. She has scored at least three goals in 10 of her 16 games with three six-goal performances, including six goals and an assist vs. Mercyhurst in the regular season victory. She also leads ESU with 76 draw controls.

Cicerelle is second on the Warriors with 57 points, ranking third in both goals (40) and assists (17), with six games of four-plus goals and four goals and four assists vs. Mercyhurst in the regular season. She had 26 goals and 13 assists in 20 games as a freshman, entering the NCAA Tournament with 96 career points (66 goals, 30 assists) nearing the end of her sophomore year.

Rufolo has 30 goals, eight assists, a team-high 58 ground balls and is third in draw controls (27) and caused turnovers (26) in another impressive season. She had 34 goals and 17 assists with team-highs in all three "extra" categories during her PSAC Athlete of the Year season as a sophomore in 2017, her first at ESU after transferring from Division I Gardner-Webb.

A pair of juniors run the low attack in Brooke Fritz (15 goals, 31 assists) and TJ Jefferis (15 goals, 27 assists), who was third team All-PSAC last year. Fritz is fourth and Jefferis sixth on ESU's single-season assists list, and they are both tied for eighth in career assists (51).

Both have eclipsed the 100 career point mark this season - Jefferis with 126 points (75 goals) and Fritz with 108 (57 goals).

Also in the attack are freshman Bailey McMaster (9 goals, 2 assists), who scored three goals in the PSAC semifinals, sophomore Cassidy McKenna (8 goals, 5 assists) and senior midfielder Alicia Stratten (7 goals, 6 assists), who has 41 career goals and 21 assists in four seasons.

Freshmen Shannon Dent (3 goals, 3 assists) and Brielle Curtis (2 goals) and sophomores Juliane Fitzsimmons (2 goals) and Rylie Toomey (goal, assist) have also contributed in the midfield.

Defensively, Petteway is fifth in DII in save percentage (.526) after ranking fourth (.532) as a freshman last season. She has a 27-5 record, and has yielded 10 or fewer goals in 10 of ESU's 13 wins this year.

Pokrivka is fifth in DII in caused turnovers per game (2.75), and 25 in DII and eighth in the PSAC in ground balls per game (3.50) as a freshman.

All four defensive starters are underclassmen - five when including Petteway in goal. Junior Natalie Jacobs (12 caused turnovers, 21 ground balls) has started 35 of ESU's 36 games in the last two years, sophomore Madison Mulligan (5 caused turnovers, 17 ground balls) has started all 36 and freshman Kristen Andreychak (12 caused turnovers, 28 ground balls) has started all 16 games in her first season.

In ESU's recent series vs. Mercyhurst, the Warriors had won three straight - 16-10 in the regular season and 10-9 in the PSAC championship last year, and 19-14 in the regular season this year - before Friday's loss. Mercyhurst had won eight straight from 2009 through 2016, when the Lakers joined the PSAC.

Mercyhurst reached the PSAC championship game for the sixth time in the last seven years last weekend and won its only title in 2016 - leading to the second of its two NCAA Tournament trips.

Three Lakers were named first team All-PSAC in senior attack Taylor Izzo (33 goals, 62 assists), senior midfielder Kristen Anderson (57 goals, 15 assists, 97 draw controls) and sophomore defender Kira Kolb (80 draw controls, 38 caused turnovers, 51 ground balls).

Izzo has seven goals and eight assists in two games vs. ESU this season, with three goals and three assists last weekend and nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in ESU's 19-14 win in April.

Anderson has six goals, an assist and 15 draw controls. Mercyhurst has dominated the draw control vs. ESU, 43-21, with the Warriors posting a 200-144 advantage in their other 14 games.