The American University women's lacrosse team travelled to Worcester, Mass., on Saturday afternoon, needing a win against Holy Cross to earn a berth in the Patriot League Tournament. Despite a career-best four goals from Paige Lin, the Eagles came up on the short end of a 16-11 decision to conclude their 2010 campaign.

Holy Cross (6-10, 3-3 Patriot League) got off to a fast start in the game, scoring six of the first seven goals to jump out to a five-goal advantage midway through the first half. Lin responded by knocking home her second goal of the contest for American (6-10, 3-3 PL) at the 17:10 mark of the first half to cut the deficit to 6-2. Later in the half, Emily Stankiewicz, Amanda Makoid and Lin converted consecutive strikes to trim the Crusaders' margin to 7-5 with 10:43 to go.

Both offenses kept it rolling in the latter stages of the opening half, as the two squads combined to net seven goals in the final 10:01 of play. Unfortunately for American, the Crusaders were responsible for five of the scores, including a backbreaking goal with one second remaining in the half to give Holy Cross a 13-7 lead at intermission. AU's two scores during the stretch came off the sticks of Makoid and Eliza Morgan.

The Crusaders continued their strong play in the opening minutes of the second period, as they netted the first two scores of half to take a 15-7 advantage with 17:31 remaining. American scored four of the game's final six goals in a considerably lower-scoring second half, but it was not enough as the Eagles fell by a final of 16-11.

For the Eagles, Lin registered a career-high five points on four goals and an assist. Stankiewicz added three goals on only three shots, while Makoid closed out her collegiate career with a pair of goals, as well as a career-high six draw controls.

Holy Cross was paced by Kat Sutton, who recorded a game-high six points on five goals and an assist. Katie Gardner added three goals and an assist for the Crusaders.

Since both American and Holy Cross finished with identical 3-3 records in conference play, the Crusaders move onto next weekend's four-team Patriot League Tournament over AU by virtue of their head-to-head victory.