The journey to a third-straight national championship berth got started the right way for the Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team, as the Diplomats dispatched Union 15-5 Saturday in an NCAA Division III regional semifinal at North Campus Athletic Field.

The No. 2-ranked Diplomats (18-1) will host No. 8 Tufts (16-2), a 20-18 winner over St. John Fisher in Saturday's second game, at 1 p.m. today with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

F&M and No. 6 Union (15-4) met once previously, a March 23 regular-season tilt. In that game, F&M jumped out to a 5-1 lead only to hold and escape with an 11-10 win.

Saturday saw a similar script unfold at the start, as junior attacker Blake Hargest scored two goals in the opening minute of play to give F&M the 2-0 advantage. It would be 3-0 with 18:46 to go when midfielder Shannon Summers fed Hargest from behind the net and Hargest unleashed a quick shot that handcuffed Union's Cat Ruggiero.

"It happened in the Union game last time; I knew exactly where to place myself," Hargest said about her fast start. "I love to be down there [in the middle], and I just kind of have a knack for that."

The Dutchwomen got on the board on a Melissa Hine tally with 14:45 to go in the first half, but Meredith Lussier quickly followed with a goal and Jen Pritchard converted a free position shot that made it 5-1 with 12:40 to play in the half.

"This is the start we're looking for every game," F&M first-year head coach Lauren Paul said. "When we played during the regular season, we came out the same way, and it was 5-1 with about 10 minutes left in the first half. It was very similar today."

But in the first game, Union outscored the Diplomats 5-1 over the final 12 minutes of the first half to tie the game. That would not happen Saturday.

Pritchard added her second of the game with 8:42 to go in the first half, and Lussier scored her second 41 seconds later to make it 7-1.

Union's Allie Cuozzo capped the first-half scoring with her 26th goal of the season, converting a free position shot to make it 7-2. Union managed only three shots on goal in the first half, while F&M peppered Ruggiero with 14. Diplomats keeper Lidia Sanza made four saves to anchor a defense that held opponents to fewer than seven goals a game during the season.

"I think the defense stepped it up tremendously," Hargest said. "We've been working on that throughout the season, and it's just clicking on both ends."

Looking to jump-start a rally, Union's Chelsea Charette scored just 3:28 out of the break to make it 7-3. But Lussier scored her third to give the Diplomats a five-goal advantage again.

"It was something we worked on from the second half of the season," Paul said. "Once we get up by about five goals and they think we're going to stall, and the other team thinks they have a chance to get back in it, we just step it up and net another five goals."

For the Diplomats, that moment came 10 minutes into the second half when Union sophomore attacker Kristin Joyce scored an unassisted goal to cut the F&M lead to 8-4. But over the next 5:43, F&M saw five different players score a goal as they stretched the lead to 13-5. Hargest and Lussier added their fourth goals during that stretch and Lussier's goal was also her 50th of the season. Hargest would add a game-high fifth goal, and Pritchard, the Diplomats' leading scorer, capped the scoring with her third of the game with 7:21 to go.

The win was the Diplomats 10th straight. They last lost March 29, falling to No. 1 Salisbury 10-9 at home. That loss remains the lone blemish on the Diplomats record this year and served as something of a catalyst for the current winning streak and Saturday's dominating performance.

"After the Salisbury game, we kind of made a pact that we would never again lose on this field," Pritchard said.

F&M will be challenged today by Tufts.

Saturday, the Jumbos survived a furious second-half rally by the Cardinals. Amanda Roberts and Jenna Abelli each had four goals for Tufts, which led 9-5 at halftime.