ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - Junior Jessica Chmielewski scored a career-high 10 points to lead the No. 1 Salisbury University women's lacrosse team past No. 18 St. Mary's (Md.) College, 18-11, on Saturday afternoon in a key Capital Athletic Conference game. Chmielewski, the CAC Women's Lacrosse Co-Athlete of the Week, scored a career-high six goals and added four assists in the seven-goal win.

Salisbury (15-0, 6-0 CAC) struck just over a minute into the game on a goal off the stick of junior Ashleigh Gender (three goals, seven draw controls) assisted by Chmielewski. The Sea Gulls scored two more goals in the first five minutes, one by Chmielewski and the other by sophomore Kim Cudmore (two goals), to build a 3-0 lead.

St. Mary's (8-4, 4-1 CAC) got on the board a minute later on a goal by junior Emily Norris. Seven of the games' next eight goals belonged to the Gulls as they increased their lead to 10-2. Senior Jessica Liston (two goals, two assists), Gender and Cudmore each had two goals in the first half.

Senior All-American Sue Ackermann, who has 52 goals on the season, scored just once in the game. Ackermann scored an unassisted goal with 10:29 left before the half. She dished out a season-high seven assists, four in the first half, as she recorded five of her eight points in the first 30 minutes of play.

The Seahawks closed out the half with two goals in the final nine minutes of play, one by junior Allie Zerhusen and the other by Norris, to cut the Sea Gulls' lead to 10-4 at the break

The two teams traded goals, three times, as Salisbury led 13-7 midway through the second half. Chmielewski put the team on her shoulders as she scored the game's next four goals, all assisted by her teammates, in less then four minutes. Chmielewski also assisted Salisbury's final goal passing the ball to fellow teammate freshman Logan Bilderback who found the back of the net to give Salisbury a commanding 18-7 lead with 6:50 left.

SU starting goalie Sonja Stuart played over 44 minutes and made six saves and allowed six to remain a perfect 15-0 in between the pipes for the Gulls. Sophomore Natalie Pappas (one save) played the final 16 minutes. Seahawk goalie Ella Schoming made 13 stops in 60 minutes.

SMC ended the SU 5-0 run with a run of its own as the Seahawks closed out the game with four consecutive tallies. Norris and junior Lauren Carrier (two assists) led the Seahawks with four goals apiece.

Salisbury outshot St. Mary's 39-22 and won 61 percent of the draw controls (20-for-31). The Sea Gulls took good care of the ball only turning it over three times in the first half and 13 for the game. SMC was a perfect 2-for-2 on free position shots.

Salisbury remains in first place of the CAC with one final conference game to play against University of Mary Washington on April 17. The Eagles (9-5, 5-0 CAC) still have to face St. Mary's and Salisbury in the next two weeks to complete their conference schedule.

The Sea Gulls will next travel to Ewing, N.J., to take on No. 4 The College of New Jersey next Saturday (April 12) at 5 p.m.