Tuesday was a big day for Northwestern Lehigh girls lacrosse as the team took a big step toward improving its positioning for the postseason and saw a couple of career records fall in the win over Saucon Valley.

The win gives the Lady Tigers a three-game winning streak when they needed it most and has them in good position for the final two games of the regular season.

“The girls are actually still leveling up to our expectations,” said Tiger head coach Pam Colistra. “We keep constantly challenging them and they’re answering those challenges.

Before the three-game winning streak, Northwestern played a pair of EPC powerhouse teams in Easton and Nazareth. Colistra was proud of the effort against two good teams

“To play against a team like Nazareth and only lose by three goals was phenomenal,” she said. “Our goal is to make it to the district championship, so we have been practicing very hard and need to be ready to play those tough teams.”

The win over the Panthers followed a 23-4 pounding of Moravian Academy late last week that saw Northwestern score their highest number of goals in a game this season.

Against Saucon Valley, the game was close from the opening draw and ended with Northwestern holding on for an 11-10 win. Olivia Costa had two goals in the first period with the first being career goal number 155 to make her the career leader in goals for Northwestern, surpassing the 154 scored by Ava Collins.

Olivia Spatz and Ella Collins also scored first-quarter goals, but Northwestern trailed 5-4 after one period.

The game was tied both going into halftime and after three quarters. Costa added her third goal and Olivia Fagan added a goal in the second period to force a 6-6 tie. Spatz and Collins scored in the third to keep the game tied 8-8 going into the final quarter.

Sydney Wright made it 9-8 for Northwestern and Cara Thomas made it 10-8 for the first two-goal lead in the game for either team. Later in the fourth, Fagan notched what would be the game winner that made it 11-9 before Saucon Valley would close the gap with a late goal.

“This one was huge,” said Colistra. “This one set us at a higher seed for the playoffs, so it’s really exciting to get this win.”

In addition to Costa setting the goals record, Thomas also reached two career marks as she set the school’s assist record with 50 and then also set the caused turnovers record at 47.

Sydney Wright reached the 100-career points milestone recently. Costa is closing in on the all-time points record for Northwestern as she trails Ava Collins’ mark of 203 by just 18 points.

Northwestern (7-9) is at Southern Lehigh (12-3) Thursday and then closes out the regular season at home against Moravian Academy (1-11) on Tuesday. The Spartans are currently the top seed in 2A, so a win against them would give an added punch of momentum going into the postseason.”

“We have to come out and play the way we did against tonight against Southern Lehigh and Moravian to finish the season strong,” said Colistra.