D1 Women’s LAX Recap
29 teams remain in the fight for the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Lacrosse title. Revealed last night, in a joint special with the men’s bracket, the women’s bracket features the expected along with some surprise picks. To understand what the bracket looks like, let’s take a look at how some of the teams made it in the first place, especially the local teams, and how they did in their conference tournaments.
CAA (Hofstra):
The Colonial Athletic Association tournament was held in Harrisburg, Virginia hosted by 2018 National Champion James Madison University. The first game saw fifth seed Elon take on fourth seeded Towson in a play-in-game to face the top seeded Drexel Dragons. In a game that was supposed to be an exciting matchup was dominated by Towson from the start, with the Tigers striking first. Elon was able to get within a one goal deficit three separate times, but each time Elon got momentum, the Tigers took it away. Between the final two minutes of the first half and 14 left in the second, the Tigers scored 10 consecutive goals. Eight Towson players scored at least one goal, with Blair Pearre leading the charge with four. Carly Merlo earned the win in the cage making eight saves on five goals, with Lindsay Posner allowing the last goal in the two minutes she played. Paulina DiFatta got the loss for Elon after making 11 saves. Elon finishes the season 9-3.
In the first semifinal match between Towson and Drexel, it was back-and-forth the whole game with both teams gaining momentum swings with neither team being down by more than three goals. Towson had a four goal run in the middle of the second half that pushed the Tigers to a 14-11 lead. Drexel answered back with three goals in less than a minute of play, and both teams were tied heading to overtime. Drexel’s Courtney Dietzel’s scored the game winning goal on a free-position, man-up attempt with 5:40 remaining in overtime. The goal gave the Dragons a 15-14 victory over the Tigers, who earned an at-large tournament berth and will play number eight Stony Brook in the first round.
In the second semifinal, the number 25 ranked Hofstra Pride took on 20 ranked JMU, and the Pride could not stay even with the Dukes offense, losing 7-14 Friday evening. Hofstra had the lead twice, both at the beginning of the game, but four consecutive goals by James Madison gave the lead to the Dukes and the Pride couldn’t do much about it. JMU had three players score hat tricks while Hofstra’s Katie Whelan scored four. Jess Smith made nine saves in the loss while Molly Dougherty made 13 in the win. Hofstra also earned an at-large berth and will head into the tournament with a 6-6 record and will play Loyola Maryland with the winner going up against number 3 Syracuse.
In the CAA Championship game, James Madison defeated Drexel 13-12 in overtime. Drexel had several opportunities to seal the game but the James Madison offense was too much for the Dragons Defense. Drexel had an early 3-1 lead but JMU came back with four of its own. In the second, Drexel had six consecutive goals, pushing the Dragons ahead 12-9 with five minutes remaining, but just like earlier, JMU answered back and scored three more before the time ran out, including two from Taylor Marchetti. Lizzy Fox earned a Free-position attempt with 2:05 left in the overtime period and converted the attempt to give JMU the 13-12 victory. Drexel heads into the NCAA tournament with a CAA regular season title and a 13-12 record. The Dragons will take on Rutgers in the first round in the Stony Brook region. JMU looks for its second title in three (technically four) seasons with an 11-4 record, but because of its earlier losses did not earn a favorable selection, the Dukes will play Johns Hopkins in the first round in Chapel Hill with the winner taking on number one seeded North Carolina.
America East Conference (Stony Brook):
Number sixth ranked Stony Brook hosted the America East tournament and played fourth seed UMBC in the first semifinal. The Retrievers took an early 4-0 lead, the first time all season, any team scored four consecutive goals against the Seawolves. After a timeout called by Stony Brook, the Seawolves regained composure and got back to their “winning” ways scoring three quick goals and then another four after a UMBC goal. UMBC’s Claire Bockstie had two goals within thirty seconds of each other to tie the game back up, but Stony Brook wouldn’t allow the score to remain tied for too long, getting themselves three more. Stony Brook headed to the lockers up 11-8 and never lost the lead again, opening the second half scoring six goals in the first 10 minutes. UMBC, just like their previous game against Stony Brook, went out fighting, and made sure to get the last goal in. Stony Brook won the game 25-13. UMBC finishes the season 6-6.
In the second semifinal, UAlbany defeated Vermont 17-8, in a game that was dominated by the Great Danes. UAlbany scored 8 unanswered goals within the first 11 minutes of the game. When UAlbany dominated all sides of the game, and with the help of a very sloppy Vermont team, seemed like a scrimmage for a UAlbany team that everyone knew would face Stony Brook in the finals. Kyla Zapolski led the Great Danes with four goals, while Ava Vasile, Maris Large and Taylor Mullen all scored two for Vermont. Vermont ends the season with a 6-6 record.
Stony Brook and UAlbany faced each other for the eighth straight America East Championship game and Stony Brook came out swinging and ready to fight, going up 2-0 with two early goals, and not allowing UAlbany to get any momentum. With eight Seawolves scoring in the finals, Stony Brook defeated their SUNY rival 16-9. Graduate student star Ally Kennedy scored five goals to lead the Seawolves and combined with her seven from the semifinals against UMBC, earned herself the most valuable player award in the tournament. UAlbany finishes the season 11-7, while Stony Brook earned the eighth seed in the NCAA tournament and will host the first two rounds while playing Towson in the first round.
NEC (LIU):
The NEC tournament took place at the higher seeds home turf. In the first semifinal game Mount St. Mary’s (MD) defeated Bryant University 12-10. It was an evenly matched game, which comes as a surprise as the Mount previously defeated Bryant two other times by 9 goals and 6 goals. This time around, the score was tied at half and both teams were going back-and-forth in scoring. In the second half the teams swapped goals and then would be two goals for Bryant, two goals for Mount. This happened several times until Bryant ran out of time and scored one last goal with eight seconds remaining. Jordan Butler scored six goals for Mount while Devon Bolen led Butler with three. Bryant finishes the season with a 7-6 record.
In the second semifinal Wagner hosted LIU, and for the third time this season LIU were defeated by the Seahawks, this time Wagner winning 16-8. The first half was not pretty for LIU, as the defense allowed nine goals in the first half, and the Sharks were limited to one goal for the first 23 minutes of play. The Sharks played better in the second half, but the damage was done and LIU could not make a comeback. Kasey Dorney scored five goals for Wagner, while LIU had three players each score two. LIU finishes the season with a 9-5 overall record and a 7-4 conference record.
In the NEC Championship game, Mount St. Mary’s defeated Wagner 9-8 in overtime. Beanie Colson scored with FIVE seconds remaining in the first overtime period to earn the Mountaineers its first NEC championship since 2005. The Mount were down 8-4 with 12 minutes remaining when they scored four goals and held Wagner scoreless for the remaining minutes plus the overtime period. After Colson’s first goal got Mount back within one, both teams went scoreless for five more minutes until Sara Moeller scored with 5:28 left in regulation. Lauren DiStefano made 12 saves in the loss while Jenna Oler made five in the victory. Wagner finishes the season with a 10-5 record, and the Mountaineers head to the NCAA tournament with a 14-2 record. The two losses come from Towson and a ranked Navy team. Mount St. Mary’s will head down to North Carolina to take on seventh ranked Duke in the opening round. The winner will play the Maryland-High Point winner.
All first round games will be played on Friday, May 14, with the second round being played on Sunday the 16. Check below for the full bracket.
