WASHINGTON, DC (May 7, 2022) -- The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team fell to No. 17 Catholic 11-10 in a tightly contested Landmark Conference Championship game at Carlini Field on Saturday afternoon. 

The Royals left it all out on the field and controlled the stat sheet, edging out the Cardinal in shots (30-22), ground balls (20-12), and caused turnovers (10-4) in the game, but came up just short to Catholic. 

Scranton got on the board first at the 10:05 mark in the first quarter as freshman Grace Lane (Long Beach, N.Y. / Sacred Heart Academy) found the back of the net to give her squad an early 1-0 lead. Catholic responded well with three straight goals to take a two goal lead with 3:48 remaining in the opening period. Sophomore Devyn Tanajewski (Ringwood, N.J. / Lakeland Regional) then cut the Cardinals' lead to one as she converted on a free-position attempt for the Royals. Catholic added another goal in the last minute of the first quarter to take a 4-2 lead headed into the second.

Tanajewski scored her second goal of the game in the opening minutes of the second period to cut Catholic's lead back to one. Senior Halle Conklin (Point Lookout, N.Y. / Kellenberg Memorial) then tied the game up at 4-4 as she scored a free-position goal at the 9:58 mark in the second quarter. The Cardinals followed up with another 3-0 run before Lane closed out the half with her second goal of the game in the final minute of the second period. Catholic led Scranton 7-5 at halftime.

Catholic regained its three goal cushion early on in the third period and soon after extended its lead to four as they led Scranton 9-5 at the 5:36 mark. Lane found a quick response for the Royals as she scored a man up goal to secure her hat trick on the day and bring Scranton within three goals of Catholic. Lane's goal sparked the Royal attack as Conklin and Tanajewski followed up with back-to-back free-position goals to cut Catholic's lead to 9-8 at the end of the third quarter. 

The Royals kept the momentum headed into the fourth quarter as Lane tied the game up at 9-9 with 9:48 remaining in the game. Catholic regained the lead just over a minute later and then added another to take a two goal advantage with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth period. Scranton fought hard to find a late goal and Lane provided it with 52 seconds remaining in regulation to cut Catholic's lead to 11-10. The Royals then won the ensuing draw control and raced down the field in hopes of finding a late equalizer. Tanajewski got off a shot for Scranton in the final seconds of the game but Catholic's goalkeeper, Rachel Searle, made an impressive save to secure the win for her team. 

Lane led the Royals with five goals, matching her performance from Wednesday night's semifinal win over Moravian. Tanajewski also scored a hat trick, while Conklin scored the other two goals for Scranton. Kate Olsen led the Cardinals with a game-high six points on three goals and three assists.

Defensively, sophomore Grace Dabulas (Scotch Plains, N.J. / Westfield) paced Scranton with three caused turnovers while senior Emily Schum (East Hanover, N.J. / Morris Catholic) recorded a game-high six draw controls. 

The Royals will wait to see if they have secured an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament field of 46, which will be announced Monday morning at 10:30 AM.

--ROYALS--