Ephtastic: Williams Upends Colby for Crown
from press release
HARTFORD, Conn. - Junior goalie Julia Schreiber
(Cockeysville, Md.) totaled 12 saves and three ground balls, while
holding the Colby College Mules scoreless for the final 31:51 of
the game, to lead the No. 7-seeded Williams College Ephs to a 9-4
victory over No. 3-seeded Colby in the finals of the New England
Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Women's Lacrosse
Championship Tournament this afternoon on Sheppard Field at Trinity
College.
Williams improves to 12-6, avenging both a 9-7 loss at Colby in its
season opener and a 10-5 loss to the Mules in last year's NESCAC
Finals, becomes just the third team to win the NESCAC Championship
title in the 10 years of the tournament's existence, and earns the
league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
Two-time defending champion Colby, drops to 13-4 and looks for an
at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament when those bids are
announced this evening.
Williams trailed, 4-2, after Colby sophomore midfielder Claire
Donegan (Great Falls, Va.) sped past the Eph defense from just
inside midfield for her second goal of the game, with 1:51 left in
the first half. Eph senior Tracey Ferriter (Winchester, Mass.)
answered a minute later on a free-position goal to cut the lead to
one entering the break, and Williams dominated the second half with
six straight goals.
Senior midfielder Whitney Kelly (Weston, Mass.) tied the game on
another free-position 1:46 into the second half, and senior
attacker Tina Nawrocki (Winchester, England) tallied the clincher
at the 26:38 mark with a wrap-around move behind the net followed
by a quick switch of the stick from her right to her left hand that
fooled Colby junior goalie Sarah Warnke (Lakeville, Conn.). Four
different Ephs added goals over the next 20 minutes of the second
half, while the Williams defense allowed at the Colby offense few
opportunities and each was stopped by Schreiber's quick stick work
in the cage.
Williams held a 10-to-5 edge on the draw and converted on five out
of six free-position shots, while Colby failed on all five of its
free positions and committed 27 fouls to just 16 for the Ephs.
Williams sophomore Meera Sivalingam (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored
twice, while Ferriter finished with a goal and an assist and led
all players in ground balls with five, draw controls with four, and
caused turnovers with three.
Colby senior tri-captain attacker Amy Campbell (North Andover,
Mass.) notched one goal and one assist, while senior tri-captain
defender Caroline Duke (Englewood, Colo.) added a team-high four
ground balls, and Warnke stopped three shots in goal.
