Navy Reaches Patriot Final for First Time
from press release
HAMILTON, N.Y. - Riding junior attacker Erin
Rawlick's dominant four-goal, three-assist effort, the third-seeded
Navy women's lacrosse team (13-4) topped second-seeded Lehigh
(11-6), 12-11 on Friday afternoon in the semifinal round of the
2009 Patriot League Women's Lacrosse Tournament at Tyler's
Field.
With the victory, the team's seventh in the last eight games, the
second-year Midshipmen program advances to its first-ever league
championship game and now sits just one win away from punching its
ticket into the NCAA Tournament's Field of 16.
Rawlick and her Midshipmen teammates will face the winner of
Friday's second semifinal between top-seeded Colgate and No. 4
Bucknell on Sunday for the league crown. Game time is slated for
1:00 pm at Tyler's Field in Hamilton, N.Y.
"I couldn't be prouder of our girls. From start-to-finish, we
really put together a terrific 60-minute effort today," said Navy
head coach Cindy Timchal. "We've had to battle through a lot of
adversity this season. We were dealt a major blow when we lost
Katrina (Nietsch) to injury and we really had to fight our way into
the postseason at Bucknell. Today, I think it was just a matter of
us really believing in ourselves that put us over the hump."
Rawlick came one point shy of equaling a Patriot League Tournament
record with a game-high seven points, to go along with five draw
controls on the afternoon. She scored three of her four markers in
the first 30 minutes, while factoring in on each of the team's six
first-half goals (3 g, 3 a). In 17 games this season, she now has a
league-best 89 points (56 g, 33 a).
"Every game all season, Erin has just gotten stronger and
stronger," added an exuberant Timchal. "Right now, she is at the
top of her game, she is playing within herself and really giving
all she has for the Navy women's lacrosse program."
"Erin really wants this for her teammates. The goals today happened
to come her way, but if you talk to her, she will be the first one
to remind you that her success would not be possible without the
hardwork of each and everyone of her teammates."
The Rawlick-led Mids came out of the gate strong, finding the back
of the cage on each of their first three shots and jumping out to a
3-1 lead at the 23:06 mark.
Navy's junior standout opened the day's scoring with her 50th goal
of the season just 1:15 in off a feed from fellow All-Patriot
League first-teamer Caitlin Mandrin Hill (Annapolis, Md.). Only 44
seconds later, she would find fellow classmate Mary Ruttum
(Annapolis, Md.) for a score to stretch the lead to 2-0.
After Lauren Dykstra, the 2009 Patriot League Offensive Player of
the Year, put the Mountain Hawks on the board at 23:54, the Navy
women responded with three of the next four tallies to grab a 5-2
edge midway through the period.
Rawlick, the fourth-ranked scorer in the country entering the week,
continued to impose her will on second-seeded Lehigh, setting up
junior Brittany Amerau (Alexandria, Va.) for a goal just 48 seconds
after Dykstra's free-position strike and then completing her 12 hat
trick of the season (26th of her career) on a pair of unassisted
goals at 16:09 and 14:41 marks, respectively.
Lehigh would dig into the lead with a goal to make it 5-3 at 12:55,
but the 5-foot-8 attacker would strike again for the Mids, this
time delivering a pretty feed from behind the cage to freshman Dani
Vivonetto (Rocky Point, N.Y.), who one-timed it home for her 30th
goal of the season at the 4:20 mark. The assist was Rawlick's third
of the half, to go along with her three goals.
Dykstra would convert on another eight-meter attempt with 1:39 left
in the half to make it a 6-4 game headed into the break.
Lehigh opened the second half with a goal at 29:29 to make it a
one-goal game at 6-5. The two sides traded scores over the next
three-plus minutes before Ruttum ignited a 3-0 Navy run with her
second goal of the day at 24:07.
Freshman Kierstin King scored a goal and had five ground balls,
while shadowing Lehigh's top scorer Lauren Dykstra throughout the
duration of Friday's semifinal.
Rawlick scored her fourth goal of the game at 19:08 and then
Vivonetto completed a solo run to give the Mids a 10-6 advantage
with 17:33 remaining.
After a Mountain Hawks goal at the 11:00 mark cut the deficit to
10-7, Navy answered with goals from Madison Bell (Baltimore, Md.)
and Lexi Dauernheim (Monterey, Calif.) to stake claim to its
biggest lead of the day at 12-7 with 8:38 left in regulation.
Lehigh mounted a furious late-game charge, scoring the first of
four unanswered at 7:09 and then adding three goals over a 1:14
span in the closing minutes to make it a 12-11 game with 31 seconds
to play.
With the momentum now clearly behind the second-seeded Mountain
Hawks, the Mids kept their cool and settled things down after being
awarded the day's final draw control and ran out the clock for
their first ever Patriot League Tournament victory.
Offensively for the Mids, Vivonetto finished with three points (2
g, 1 a), Ruttum added a pair of goals to go along with three ground
balls and a career-high four caused turnovers, while Mandrin Hill
finished with two assists to her credit.
Bell, Amerau and freshman Kierstin King (Upperco, Md.) rounded out
the Navy goal-scorers on the day, with King also collecting a
game-high five ground balls.
In the cage, Navy freshman and second-team all-league goalie Elaina
Ponchione (Silver Spring, Md.) came up big once again, making nine
saves
On the final statsheet, Navy bested Lehigh in three important
categories in which the Mountain Hawks finished as the conference's
regular season leaders: ground balls (24-21), draw controls (14-11)
and caused turnovers (6-4).
Notes:
*Coming into Friday's contest, Lehigh had won each of the previous
two meetings between the two squads, including a 11-7 victory on
April 11 in Annapolis.
* The Patriot League Tournament record for points is eight, a mark
achieved twice, most recently by American's Sarah Milewski in the
2005 semifinals.
* Navy has now won six-straight games outside of Annapolis, four of
which have come against Patriot League foes.
* Rawlick extended her consecutive goal-scoring streak to 34 games
(6th-longest active streak in the nation) ... she now has 180
career points (120 g, 60 a)
* Friday's semifinal featured nearly half (12) of the conference's
26 all-league selections, including the league's top-two scorers
(Rawlick and Dykstra) and five of the top-10 overall ...
