LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell held off Mount St. Mary's 12-11 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Wednesday.

Esther Rufolo (Woodstock, Md./Chapelgate Christian Academy) paced the Mount (1-5) with a career-high five goals. The junior scored at least three goals in a game for the first time this season and for the sixth time in her career. Jen Semler (Baltimore, Md./Perry) notched her second-straight hat trick and finished the game with three goals and one assist while Nicole Price (White Hall, Md./North Harford) chipped in two tallies and an assist in the loss.

The Bison (2-6) jumped out to a 6-1 lead, but Mount St. Mary's trim the margin to 12-11 at 52:43 when Price found the back of the net off a Mary MacAdam (Palmyra, N.J./Holy Cross) assist. In the final seven minutes, Lindsay Diaz (Timonium, Md./Dulaney) had shots stopped by Bucknell goalkeeper Alyssa DeLorenz at 57:05 and 57:41. The Mountaineers also were awarded a free-position opportunity with 1:42 remaining, but a turnover ended the scoring chance and the Bison ran out the clock to earn the victory.

Julia Braun fueled Bucknell with six goals and one assist while Ali Carey added four tallies in the winning effort. DeLorenz made eight saves on the day.

The Bison started out the game by scoring six of the first seven goals to take the lead and held on after a Mountaineer comeback attempt for its third win in the series.

Carey opened the game with a natural hat trick in the first 100 seconds. She found the twine nine seconds into the match unassisted and at 1:20 unassisted before converted an 8-meter chance 20 seconds later for a 3-0 lead.

Rufolo momentarily halted the Bucknell offensive surge with an unassisted marker at 2:45, but Carey started another 3-0 Bison run with her fourth goal of the afternoon at 3:15. She registered four goals in two minutes and 45 seconds, but did not find the twine the rest of the day. Madison Hurwitz then set up Braun at 3:50 before Hurwitz converted a free-position chance at 5:20 for a 6-1 advantage.

Mount St. Mary's answered with back-to-back goals thanks to a Semler unassisted tally at 7:15 and Alexis Salerno (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward Mellville) registering an 8-meter goal at 8:28 to cut the score to 6-3.

The two teams then traded goals when Braun scored unassisted at 10:36 and Semler responding unassisted at 14:01. Katelyn Miller took a feed from Braun at 20:58 only to see Price find the twine unassisted at 22:10 to maintain the three-goal difference.

Each team then scored consecutive goals to close the half with Bucknell holding a 10-7 lead. Braun extended the Bison margin to five goals with unassisted markers at 23:34 and 25:32, but Rufolo answered with goals off a helper from Semler at 26:17 and one from Price at 27:39.

Semler got the scoring started in the second half with an unassisted tally at 31:52 to complete her hat trick. Braun then converted two free-position chances at 37:27 and 39:57 sandwiched in between a Rufolo goal at 39:22 to hand the Bison a 12-9 lead.

Mount St. Mary's scored the final two goals of the game, but could not tie the score. Rufolo found the back of the net for the fifth time on the afternoon unassisted at 47:12 and MacAdam hooked up with Price at 22:43 to trim the margin to 12-11.

Brigid McTavish (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll) made five saves for the Mount while Lucy Pompa (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr) paced the defense with two ground balls, three draw controls and one caused turnovers. Meaghan Conlon (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) added three ground balls and a draw control. McTavish moved into third place in program history for career minutes played (2110.59).

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Saturday at home against UMBC. Game time is 1 p.m.