GREENSBURG, Pa. – Second-seeded Kutztown women's lacrosse was down by as many as six goals late in the second quarter, but battled all the way back and eventually took a one-goal lead with under five minutes to play, but top-seeded West Chester recorded back-to-back goals to close out the stanza and win the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship 12-11 Sunday afternoon in Greensburg, on the campus of Seton Hill University.
The Golden Bears (15-5 overall), who were looking for their first conference title since 1982 and just the second in program history, were 4:54 away from achieving that feat as
Sam Graf (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) scored her team-leading fourth goal of the game to give her team their first lead of the game at 11-10.
But the Golden Rams (19-0) responded with two goals with under 2:32 remaining to take back a lead they held for most of the game and then won the ensuing draw control with 0:48 to go to hold on for their second consecutive PSAC crown.
Graf finished with a five-point game with four goals and an assist.
Emma Meakim (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) recorded a goal and two assists.
Lailah ElBouazzaoui (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) and
Madison Wenner (Marmora, N.J./Ocean City) both tallied two goals and
Lauren Lamorte (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) contributed a goal and an assist.
Alexis Plesic (Hanover, Pa./South Western) rounded out the scoring with a goal and
Summer Davis (Beach Haven, N.J./Southern Regional) added an assist.
Undefeated and reigning PSAC champs, West Chester, showed its might, getting off to a fast start with three straight goals to open up the game and finished off the opening quarter with a tally with 0:23 left to take a 4-1 advantage. The Golden Rams then answered a Graf opening second quarter goal with four straight to take their biggest lead of the game at 8-2 with 6:30 left. Wenner and Plesic both found the back of the net in under 1:49 as KU cut its deficit to just 8-4 at halftime.
Kutztown then scored the first two goals out of intermission as ElBouazzaoui and Graf teamed up and it was just an 8-6 game. WCU ended the quarter by scoring two-out-of-three and went up 10-7 heading into the final frame.
The first 10:06 of the fourth belonged to the Maroon and Gold as they rattled off four unanswered goals from Graf (2), Wenner and Meakim to take the 11-10 advantage with 4:54 to play. But the Golden Rams would not go down quietly and wanted to defend their title, scoring two straight in under 2:32 to claim the victory.
Jenna Blesson (Sparta, N.J./Lenape Valley Regional) finished with nine saves in goal for KU and also had three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Kutztown will now await its fate in the NCAA Tournament, with the selection show happening tonight at 8:30 p.m., on
www.ncaa.com. KU will likely be the second seed and play in the Atlantic Regional pod at West Chester.
