WISE - - Visiting Wheeling Jesuit University took a 9-4 halftime lead and held off a UVa-Wise rally to claim a 13-10 Mountain East Conference women's lacrosse victory at Carl Smith Stadium Saturday. Elizabeth Hales led the Cardinals' offensive attack with four goals in the victory.

Wheeling Jesuit (5-7, 2-0 MEC) took control of the game with an onslaught of goals in the opening eight minutes. Paige Plesich got the scoring started when she scored off a Kori Hickman assist at the 28:48 mark of the first half. It would be the first of five consecutive goals for the visitors as the Hickman-to-Plesich combo capped the run at the 22:06 mark.

UVa-Wise (8-4, 1-1 MEC) got on the board with 14:25 to play in the half when Ashley Wells scored a woman-up goal off a Kristin Gobbi assist to make the score 5-1.

The momentum would be short lived as consecutive goals by Hales, Hickman and Mary Burns pushed the Cardinals lead to 8-1 with 7:43 to play in the first half.

Meghan Dennehy's squad would not go down easily as the Cavaliers scored three of the final four goals of the first half to enter intermission down 9-4. The final goal coming from McKayla Grasham with UVa-Wise playing a player down.

Rachel Cole would get the Cavs within four when she scored unassisted less than two minutes into the second half. Following a Taeolor Mailloux goal, Jesse French scored for UVa-Wise to make it 10-6 with 24:35 remaining.

After Hickman found the back of the net, French and Annie Hanson would score consecutive goals in less than a minute to make it 11-8 with 17:37 to play.

Plesich stopped the rally with a goal at the 14:32 mark to push the lead back to four.

The pace of play would slow from there as the next goal would not come until the 6:52 mark when Hannah Marshall scored off a Catherina Dina assist to make the score 12-9.

French would score 80 seconds later to get her club within two but Hales quickly responded with a goal of her own to provide the winning margin of 13-10.

French led the Cavs with three goals while Hanson and Cole added two goals each in defeat.

Plesich added three goals and assist while Hickman tallied a game-high three assists as part of her five-point performance. Taylor Quigg led all players with five groundballs in the win.

Next up for UVa-Wise is a two-game road trip to Ohio where the team will battle Notre Dame College Friday and Ursuline College on Sunday.