Fisher Advances To E8 Title Game
Second-seeded St. John Fisher College advanced to the title game in the Empire 8 Women's Lacrosse Championship, as the Cardinals picked up a 10-7 win over No. 3 Stevens Institute of Technology in Saturday's semifinals, hosted by Nazareth College.
With the win, Fisher improves to 13-5 and will try to win its fourth straight Empire 8 title at noon on Sunday at Nazareth. The Cardinals will face No. 4 Ithaca College in the title game. The Bombers knocked off top-seeded Nazareth in Saturday's other semifinal game. This will be the fourth straight year Fisher and Ithaca have met in the E8 finals.
Stevens notched the first goal of the contest, as freshman
Julianna Ricci took a feed from sophomore
Kathleen Kalbian to give the Ducks a 1-0 advantage. The Cardinals tallied the next two markers, as Jordan Johnson and Chrissy Cook scored three minutes apart, but Ricci added her second of the afternoon on a free position shot to even the game at two.
Fisher used a 3-0 run over the middle portion of the opening 30 minutes with goals from Erin Ward, Sierra Badger and Johnson to take a 5-2 lead. Stevens stopped that run with 9:47 left when
Erika Wilcox scored, but the Cardinals answered back with a tally from Badger. After a big save by freshman
Stephanie Schnelzer on Cook, the Ducks stormed down the field and sophomore
Caroline DeLuca deposited a pass from Kalbian into the back of the net to trim the deficit to two heading into halftime.
Samantha Barton opened the scoring in the second half with a goal 3:54 in, but a Wilcox tally 2:01 later brought the gap back to two goals. Ward and Johnson extended the lead to four with 8:54 remaining in the second stanza, but DeLuca was able to corral the ensuing draw control and Wilcox motored down the field to score her third of the game just 33 seconds after. After a huge save by Schnelzer on Ward, the Ducks quickly cleared the ball and senior
Caitlyn Hughes took a feed from Wilcox and buried it for goal number 37 on the season. But 55 seconds later, Badger added an insurance marker to reestablish the three goal margin.
Badger and Johnson each had a hat-trick, while Ward had two goals on six shots.
Lindsey Shoales led Fisher with five draw controls, while
Nicole Hart made seven saves in net to earn the win in goal.
Wilcox had a hat-trick while adding an assist on five shots. Hughes chipped in four shots and a draw control, while Schnelzer made a career high 11 saves.