RADNOR, PA – The Cabrini women's lacrosse team made its reservation for an eighth consecutive conference championship appearance tonight, as it scored a 17-10 victory over the visiting Marymount University Saints in the semifinal round of the Atlantic East Conference Women's Lacrosse Tournament.
Cabrini's victory sets up Saturday's title tilt against Marywood University, a rematch of the 2017 and 2018 Colonial States Athletic Conference championship games. The top seeded Pacers (12-4) posted their eighth consecutive win with an 18-8 win over Neumann in tonight's other semifinal.
The Cavaliers (10-8) displayed a balanced offensive attack tonight, as six players marked the scoring column with sophomore
Ashley Tutzauer and senior
Avery Murphy leading the way.
Tutzauer entered the program's century club, as her four goals and two assists gave her 101 career points. The sophomore also tallied six ground balls, five caused turnovers and a pair of draw controls.
Murphy stuffed the stat sheet with seven points on five goals and two helpers, seven draw controls, seven ground balls and seven caused turnovers.
Freshman
Dana Carlson chipped in with three goals and four ground balls, while senior
Emma Rodner-Tims and sophomore
Taylor Dimmerling added two markers each. Freshman
Shea Neary paired a goal and an assist with five caused turnovers and four ground balls, while junior
Mattie Porter forced three miscues and scooped four ground balls.
Freshman goaltender
Sam Hamalak earned the victory with eight saves.
The Cavaliers jumped to an early lead, as Tutzauer, Dimmerling and Murphy scored in the game's first 90 seconds. Following the Saints' first marker of the evening, the Blue and White extended its lead to 6-1 midway through the stanza.
Cabrini led 9-3 late in the first half, before back to back Marymount goals cut the lead to 9-5, but Murphy's woman down goal gave the Cavaliers a 10-5 lead at the half.
Murphy added a second woman-down goal to open the second half before the Blue and White extended its lead to 14-6 midway through the second half after two consecutive Rodner-Tims tallies.
The Saints clawed back into the game with four unanswered goals, including two woman-up goals in a 10 second span, pulling to within 14-10 with 6:45 to play.
Head coach
Jackie Neary called a Cabrini timeout and refocused her team and it paid off. The Cavaliers held the Saints to just two shots, both free position shots were saved by Hamalak, and pressured Marymount into four turnovers over the final six minutes.
The Cavaliers outshot the Saints 45-24 and scooped 40 ground balls to just 18 for Marymount. Cabrini also pressured the visitors into 32 turnovers and surrendered just 12 free position shots.
Senior Bridgette Stacom led the Saints (12-7) with four goals, nine draw controls, four caused turnovers and five ground balls, while classmate Kelly Campbell matched her four goals. Fellow senior Holly Reik kept Marymount in the action with 19 saves in the losing effort.
In tonight's other Atlantic East Conference semifinal, Marywood scored the game's first eight goals and never looked back. Despite outshooting the Knights just 18-11 in the first half, the Pacers made the most of their chances, establishing a 12-3 lead at the half.
Zoe Simeone scored a game-high six goals and scooped seven ground balls, while Gwyneth Gleason added four goals, two assists and five draw controls. Goaltender Mary Leahy scored the victory with six saves.
Saturday's championship rematch will take place at 1pm in Scranton, PA.
