Queens, Lenoir-Rhyne Set to Meet in SAC Women's Lacrosse Finals

No. 1 Queens 18, No. 4 Catawba 7

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Queens University of Charlotte advanced to the 2014 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Championship game with an 18-7 win over Catawba College this afternoon at Dickson Field. The Royals, seeded first, improved to 12-4 with the win and will play tomorrow at approximately 5 p.m.

Midfielders Brittany Larranaga and Brittany Barnwell along with attacker Megan Wagner led the Royals' offense today as each recorded hat tricks. Kelly Dowd, Arika Zimmerman and Alexandra Bruder each notched two goals, while Jena Ready tallied two assists and one goal. SAC Freshman of the Year Abigail Paulus recorded three assists and one goal.

After trading goals with the Indians in the opening five minutes of play, the Royals were able to open the game up scoring five unanswered goals to go ahead 7-2 with 19:13 to play.

Queens' run would be ended by Catawba's Meredith Jones who scored a goal at 18:23 to cut the Royals' lead to four. The next point would come just under eight minutes later on a goal from Queens' Larranaga. The Indians matched the goal 1:03 later, but a 2-1 spurt from Queens gave the regular season champions a 10-5 advantage at the break.

The Royals dominated the second half of play outscoring the Indians 8-2 to move on to the championship game.

Queens outshot Catawba 40-12 and won the battle for ground balls, 25-13. Catawba edged the Royals in draw controls 15-12. Goalkeeper Danielle Horoschak took the win in goal after getting one save.

Defensively, Barnwell led the Royals with three caused turnovers. Aarika Kaester and Akasha Kasper each notched two caused turnovers.

Jones led the Indians with four goals and one assist. Goalkeeper Bethany Davis completed the game with 15 saves.

No. 2 Lenoir-Rhyne 16, No. 3 Newberry 8

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Lenoir-Rhyne University Bears defeated Newberry College by the score of 16-8 this evening in the semifinal round of the 2014 Food Lion South Atlantic Championship. The win advances the Bears to tomorrow's championship game against No. 11 Queens University of Charlotte.

The Bears dominated the Wolves offensively outshooting Newberry 35-18. Lenoir-Rhyne also controlled the ground ball count totaling 27 to Newberry's 17. The Bears also won 16 draw controls compared to Newberry's nine.

Leading the Bears was Lauren Donovan who finished play with six goals. Hayley Beattie added four goals, while Sarah Gioconda scored two and tallied an assist. Beattie also led her team in draw controls totaling seven, while Claire Wach led in ground balls with six.

The Bears controlled the entire first half scoring 11 goals to Newberry's two. The Wolves had just one point on the board up until Jessica Baxtrom scored their second of the game with six seconds left in the half.

The Wolves began the second half scoring two straight before the Bears got going again with three in a row. Newberry would follow that scoring three consecutive goals within five minutes of action cutting Lenoir-Rhyne's lead to seven, 14-7, but they would go cold for the final minutes of play as the Bears held out for the win.

KerriAnna Barlage, Carly Marksberry and Ajahna Grosvenor each scored two goals in the loss.