Elon University women's lacrosse earned a key 10-6 road victory over Delaware on Friday night, April 20, inside Delaware Stadium to put itself in the driver's seat to reach next month's CAA Tournament. The win moves Elon to 3-10 overall and to 2-2 in conference action. Delaware dropped to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in conference play with two games remaining in the regular season. Entering the day, Elon was tied with Delaware for fourth in the CAA standings. The top four teams make the tournament, which will be held in Harrisonburg, Va., in May. THE RUNDOWN Stephanie Asher got Elon off to a hot start by completing the 34th hat trick of her career in the opening six minutes of play. She recorded Elon's first three shots of the game, putting all three past Delaware goalie Taylor Carpentier to make it 3-0 before Delaware even had a shot. While the Blue Hens did score twice to make it a one-goal game, Elon closed the first half with a pair of goal from Melissa Birdsell with the last coming with 85 seconds left in the frame to make it a 5-2 contest after 30 minutes. Jacie Cooper assisted on both of Birdsell's goals and Asher's first of the day, giving her a new career-high three assists in the first half alone. To open the second half, Elon held Delaware off the board for the first 16:35 while adding two of its own goals from Abby Godfrey and Kelsey Dupere to go up a game-high five at 7-2. With the defensive stand, Elon kept the Blue Hens off the scoreboard for more than 32 minutes between its second and third goals of the day. But once Delaware got back on the board, it went on a 4-1 run to come back within two at 7-5 with 5:53 to play and 8-6 with 2:16 to go. In the closing minutes, though, senior defender Bridget Lamb scored her first collegiate goal and Asher potted an empty-net goal with 47 seconds to go to close the four-goal victory. HIGHLIGHTS Asher's four goals paced Elon's scoring for the day. Birdsell's pair of first-half goals made her the only other Phoenix to score multiple times with Cooper, Dupere, Lamb and Godfrey each scoring once. Cooper added one more assist in the second half to record a career-best five points. Both she and Asher picked up a team-best three draw controls while Cooper also had a ground ball and a caused turnover. Shannon Horan and Maeve Cowley led Elon with three ground balls apiece and Cowley finished with three caused turnovers. Caroline Farley scored a team-best three times for Delaware while also picking up three draw controls. Becky Gohsler scored twice – both in the second half to end UD's 32-minute drought – while also picking up five draw controls, one ground ball and two caused turnovers. Sydney Rausa tallied a goal and an assist for two points and Carpentier made nine saves while picking up a game-high six ground balls. NOTES -Elon is now 2-2 in league play. Based on winning percentage, it is alone in third at .500 behind James Madison and Towson. Elon is tied with Hofstra with two wins, but Hofstra is 2-3 with one CAA game to go and Elon holds the tiebreaker over the Pride thanks to its 12-8 win in New York on April 6. -Bridget Lamb scored her first collegiate goal with 1:56 to play. The goal came out of an Elon timeout. -Elon's 10 goals is the most in a game by a team in the four-game series to date. -With five points, Stephanie Asher has now recorded 203 points in maroon and gold. She already set a new program record for most in a career last month.