GAMBIER, Ohio – A five-goal run early in the second half for KenyonKenyon College proved to be the difference Wednesday afternoon, as the Ladies won by that exact margin, 19-14 over The College of Wooster, during the North Coast Athletic Conference foes' first-round meeting in the NCAA Div. III Women's Lacrosse Championships at an overcast, wet Mavec Field.
Wooster, which won the NCAC championship 11 days ago at the same location with a 10-8 victory over Kenyon, appeared to be the team with all the momentum early in the second on Wednesday. Following a 3-0 run right before halftime, Clare Nelson-Johnson tied the game 9-9 by shoveling in a rebound less than two minutes into the new stanza.
The Fighting Scots won the ensuing draw control, an area of the game which they dominated, and had a couple of quality chances to take the lead, including a free-position attempt.
Chase Kreuter, who earlier in the day was named the NCAC Defensive Player of the Year, made a couple of key stops and then the tide quickly changed, as the Ladies scored a transition goal to go ahead. That was the first of the five-goal run, with the other four scores coming during a spurt from the 19:52 mark to 17:01.
Nina Dine got Wooster back on the board via an unassisted tally with 13:11 remaining, only to see Kenyon come up with the next two scores, and the Scots never got any closer than a four-goal deficit the rest of the way.
During one 30-second stretch of the first half, Wooster scored three goals, two by Becca Worthington and the third by Madison Carey which gave the Scots what turned out to be their only lead of the game at 4-3. The Ladies responded with their initial big run, a 6-1 stretch that saw them grab a four-goal advantage with 3:13 on the clock.
Wooster came back with its best stretch of the afternoon, scoring three times over the last 2:02, highlighted by a perfectly-threaded pass through the defense from Jaqueline Wallat to Dine for a goal.
Both Carey and Dine notched four-goal games, with Carey adding an assist for a five-point afternoon, while Nelson-Johnson and Worthington netted two goals apiece. Also of note, Jess Cleveland and Wallat put up matching one-goal, one-assist outings, and Shawna Ferris made six saves in the setback.
The Scots won 23 of the 35 draw controls, led by specialist Amy Denny, but had trouble containing Kenyon's Emily Nichols (6 goals) and Leah Sack (4 goals, 4 assists). Kreuter played a key role, tallying 17 saves on Wooster's 40 shots.
The season-ending loss puts the Scots' record at 12-4, while the Ladies (15-2) move on to take on No. 1 ranked Hamilton College (18-0) in the second round this Saturday.