Box Score
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The No. 2 seed University of Scranton women's lacrosse team (9-2) put forth a valiant effort, but fell just short against the top seeded Catholic University Cardinals (9-0) by a score of 13-9 in the Landmark Conference Championship game on Saturday afternoon at Carlini Field in the Nation's Capitol.
Scranton sees their season come to an end with a 9-2 record, while No. 6 Catholic gains the Landmark's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Senior Bridget Lalley (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) opened the scoring for the Royals at the 27:29 mark of the first half and the two teams traded goals for a majority of the opening stanza. Catholic led 5-3 late in the first half, but the Royals got two goals from sophomore Caroline Miller (Huntington, N.Y./Elwood-John H. Glenn) and senior Raegen Dunn (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Township) in the final 12 seconds of half to tie things at five apiece.
Freshman Erin Reich (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) found the back of the net with 26:14 remaining to tie things at six before the Cardinals answered with a three goal run over the next five plus minutes to take a 9-6 lead for the time being. Scranton would not go quietly however and once again battled back to cut the lead to a goal as Miller's tally with 7:04 to play made it a 10-9 game. Catholic held an 11-9 lead for most of the final six minutes of the game before adding two goals in the final minute of regulation.
Miller paced the Royals with a career-high four goals on the day, while Dunn added a pair of tallies. Other goal scorers in the contest for the visitors were Lalley, Reich and junior Jennifer Williams (Branchburg, N.J./Somerville).
Junior Emily Schum (East Hanover, N.J./Morris Catholic) recorded three ground balls, five draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers on the afternoon and classmate Jaclyn McCusker (River Edge, N.J./River Dell) added four draw controls of her own. In goal for the Royals, senior Lauren Devlin (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) matched her season-high with 13 saves.
Holly Regan led Catholic with four goals and an assist on the day, while Nanci Hernandez tallied nine saves in net.
This marked the final game in a Royals uniform for the senior class of Devlin, Dunn, Lalley, Kiera Carmody (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan), Elena Donato (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy), Bridget Doyle (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Valley), Colleen Gaffney (Highland Mills, N.Y./Monroe Woodbury) and Jill Henson (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Christian Brothers Academy). The Class of 2021 led the Royals to 39 victories over the last three plus seasons and three Landmark Conference Championship game appearances.
--ROYALS--
