Pacers Nip Cyclones to Clinch Top Seed for CSAC Playoffs
Seniors Stephanie Naro (23) and Taylor McKeown (31) were honored at halftime of Saturday's women's lacrosse game.

Pacers Nip Cyclones to Clinch Top Seed for CSAC Playoffs

Women's Lacrosse - 4/21/2012 6:30:00 PM

Box Score

Scranton, PA – Marywood University's women's lacrosse team celebrated their Senior Day by clinching the top seed in the upcoming Colonial States Athletic Conference playoffs with an 18-16 win over Centenary College on Saturday afternoon.  The Pacers, who got four goals apiece from Brooke Bondurant, Kimberly Commisso, and Diana D'Achille, improve to 11-3 this season and 7-0 in conference play with their sixth-straight win while the Cyclones see their record drop to 9-4 overall and 5-3 in the CSAC.
 
Centenary struck first on Saturday, finding the back of the net just under one and a half minutes into the contest before Kathy DiGiacomo found the equalizer at the 26:25 mark of the first starting a 6-1 run for the Pacers that put them up by four midway through the first half.  Bondurant scored three goals during the run while Commisso and Sarah Caughy also added single markers during the spurt.
 
The two teams traded goals over the final 13:35 to put Marywood ahead 9-5 at halftime.  D'Achille, DiGiacomo, and Commisso accounted for Marywood's final three goals of the half.
 
The Cyclones outscored the Pacers 8-2 over the first 7:58 of the second half to tie the game at 11-11.  Caughy and D'Achille scored goals separated by just 13 seconds to give Marywood a 13-11 advantage with 19:43 to play.  After the visitors cut their deficit to a single goal, Taylor McKeown scored unassisted and D'Achille followed with a pair of goals to push Marywood's lead to 16-12 with 12:49 left in regulation.
 
Centenary rattled off three straight goals to cut Marywood's advantage to 16-15 with 6:50 remaining.  Bondurant halted the run with her fourth goal of the game at the 3:17 mark, but the Cyclones responded just 18 seconds later.  McKeown netted her second goal of the afternoon with 2:27 to add an insurance goal and the Pacers held possession down the stretch to hold on for the win.
 
Leigha Dolcemascolo made eight saves to earn her program record-breaking 11th win of the season in goal for Marywood. Andrea Senkarik turned aside seven shots from the Pacers at the other end in the loss.
 
D'Achille led all players with 11 draw controls while Commisso added four caused turnover and eight groundballs.  Stephanie Naro led the Pacers defense by picking up eight groundballs of her own.
 
An evenly played contest throughout, both teams fired off 31 shots apiece with Centenary holding a narrow, 25-21 edge in groundballs for the game while the Marywood held a slim, 18-17 advantage in draw controls.
 
At halftime of Saturday's game, the Pacers honored seniors Naro and McKeown who are leading Marywood into their fourth-straight CSAC playoff appearance. 
 
Marywood will look to complete an unbeaten regular season in conference play on Monday when the Pacers travel to Aston, PA to take on CSAC opponent Neumann University in the team's final conference game of the season at 7:00 p.m.
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