Box Score
Baltimore, MD – Marywood University's women's lacrosse team earned the first postseason victory in program history on Saturday afternoon with a 12-6 win at the College of Notre Dame in the first round of the Colonial States Athletic Conference playoffs. The Pacers, now 9-8 on the season, advance to the CSAC Semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Cabrini College on Wednesday afternoon.
After Notre Dame scored 3:26 into Saturday's contest, Marywood's Alexis Willey (Hummelstown, PA) set up goals by Taylor McKeown (Nashua, NH) and Kelly Kuzicki (Vernon, NJ) to give the Pacers a 2-1 lead just under 10 minutes into the first half. Allison Terry knotted the score at 2-apiece at the 18:06 mark, but Marywood scored the final five goals of the first half to hold a 7-2 lead at the intermission. McKeown scored twice during the run while Kuzicki, Stephanie Naro (Dunmore, PA), and Kelly Kryspin (Hopatcong, NJ) each netted markers for the visitors.
Kryspin scored just under two minutes into the second half to stretch Marywood's lead to 8-2. Notre Dame's Ashley Cumberland halted the Pacers six goal run with one of her own at the 26:43 mark only to see Kryspin complete her hat-trick just over a minute later. After Lauren Terry cut the hosts' deficit to 9-4, Kuzicki became the third Marywood player to score a hat-trick as the senior converted a free-position shot and McKeown added her fourth marker of the afternoon with 16:31 to play to stretch the Pacers' advantage to 11-4. Lauren Terry sandwiched a pair of goals around on by Marywood's Jennifer Silvestri (Warwick, NY) over the final 12 minutes to close out the scoring.
Marywood, who avenged a 15-3 regular season loss to the Gators, got 13 saves from goalie Katie Sullivan (Merrick, NY). McKeown tied with Notre Dame's Lauren Terry with a game-high four goals on four points. Kuzicki (3 goals), Kryspin (3 goals), and Willey (3 assists) each added three points for the Pacers.
The Gators, who got 7 saves from Emily Langton, held a 31-25 edge in shots for the game and 25-18 advantage in groundballs. Notre Dame finishes their 2010 campaign with a 7-8 record.
Marywood will take on Cabrini College in one CSAC semifinal on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in Radnor, PA. The Cavaliers topped the Pacers 16-10 in Scranton during on March 27th.
Centenary College will be hosting Gwynedd-Mercy College, an 18-8 winner over Immaculata today, in Wednesday's other semifinal. The semifinal winners will advance to the CSAC Final on Saturday, May 8th at the site of highest remaining seed with an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament on the line.
