SCRANTON, PA – The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team took down the Catholic University Cardinals, 16-6, in the Landmark Conference Championship Game to win its third straight Conference Title.
The Basics
- Final Score: Scranton – 16, Catholic– 6
- Records: Scranton (14-5, 9-0 Landmark), Catholic (10-9, 8-1 Landmark)
- The Royals defeated the Cardinals for the third consecutive season in the Landmark Title game en route to their third championship in program history.
- Scranton defeated every Landmark Conference opponent by at least 10 goals, and they did it twice against Catholic.
How it Happened
- Senior Grace Lane got the scoring started with a free position goal to put Scranton ahead 1-0.
- Just 1:13 later, Catholic responded as freshman Madeline McDevitt scored her first of the game to tie it at one apiece.
- Catholic took its first lead of the game at the 9:30 mark when Madeline Kelly snuck one through to make it 2-1 Cardinals.
- Scranton, however, answered just 11 seconds later. After sophomore Jillian Lopez won the draw, she passed to graduate student Erin Reich who then found sophomore Eileen Hewitt over the middle who buried the shot as she fell to the ground to even the score at 2-2.
- With 8:02 left in the first quarter, Reich connected with senior Shannon DiDominica who buried the shot on the run to push Scranton back in front 3-2.
- Lane scored her second goal of the day just 25 seconds later to extend the lead to two goals.
- Scranton took a 5-2 lead with just under three minutes in the quarter when Lopez scooped up a ground ball in the middle of six players, twisted and skipped it into the net for her first goal of the day.
- Catholic answered 47 seconds later when Caroline Regan found the back of the net to cut Scranton's lead back to two goals.
- Lopez took a pass from freshman Grace DiDominica and scored for the second time in the period to extend Scranton's lead to 6-3 with just 43 seconds left in the quarter.
- McDevitt scored her second goal of the day 2:14 into the second quarter to bring Catholic within two again at 6-4.
- Reich tallied yet another assist at the 8:02 mark when she passed to Hewitt who fired a shot into the back in the net from right in front of the crease to put the Royals ahead 7-4. The point for Hewitt was the 100th of her career.
- With 2:50 left to go in the half, Hewitt found classmate Lopez who slipped through two defenders and bounced it in for her third goal of the game to push Scranton ahead by four.
- Catholic made a push to score with just 28 seconds left in the second quarter, but junior goalkeeper Eva Guerino denied the Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year in Henley Bredemann by making her sixth save of the half.
- Hewitt started the scoring in the second half when she grabbed a pass from Reich and scored to make it 9-4 Royals.
- With 6:54 left in the period, McDevitt scored again to cut Scranton's lead back to four goals.
- Lopez grabbed a feed from Hewitt and scored for the fourth time to push the Royals ahead 10-5 with 4:31 left to go in the third period.
- Graduate student Devyn Tanajewski joined the scoring barrage with her first goal of the game 1:17 into the fourth quarter.
- Shannon DiDominca scored her second goal of the contest with 10:42 left in the game to extend the Royals' lead to 12-5, and then two minutes later, she found Reich who tallied her first goal of the game to push the Scranton lead to eight goals.
- Catholic scored its sixth goal with 6:26 to go in the game.
- The Royals ended the game with three unanswered goals scored by Lane, Hewitt and Tanajewski as they defeated Catholic 16-6.
Top Performers
- Lopez was named Landmark Championship MVP with her four goals and team leading nine draw controls.
- Guerino made 11 saves in her first career Title Game appearance.
- Hewitt recorded four goals and two assists, and she tallied her 100th career point in the win.
- Reich scored one and tallied a career-high five assists.
Inside the Box Score
- Catholic outshot Scranton 34 to 30.
- The Royals won 14 draw controls while the Cardinals won 12.
- Scranton tallied 16 caused turnovers and Catholic had 15.
Up Next
- The NCAA Tournament field will be unveiled in a live selection show on Monday morning at 10:30 AM, where the Royals await their next opponent.
