GETTYSBURG, Pa. – No. 6 Franklin & Marshall scored two goals in the final 2:25 of action to break a 6-6 tie to defeat No. 4 Gettysburg 8-6 in the Centennial Conference (CC) Women's Lacrosse Championship Sunday afternoon at Clark Field in Gettysburg. Senior Brittney Jorgenson was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player at the conclusion of the game.
F&M improved to 17-2 and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will find out its fate this evening. The NCAA will announce the 2015 field tonight at 9:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. Click here to watch the show.
F&M jumped on the board first when Jorgenson buried a pass from Grace Saliba a little over a minute into the game. Gettysburg answered with two straight and went up 2-1 before Saliba struck unassisted at 23:34 and tied the game at 2-2. Mandy Buell countered for the Bullets with a score at 21:05 to put Gettysburg back up a point and the Diplomats responded with two unanswered scores and took a 4-3 edge into the break. Megan Kelly picked up the first goal and Anastasia Mergner found Saliba at 4:58 for the second tally.
The Diplomats continued their run with two goals in the opening two minutes of the second half and took a 6-3 advantage at 27:49. Saliba and Jorgenson teamed up to start the run and Gabby Frank finished off a feed from Mergner for the second goal. The Bullets countered with a 3-0 run and tied the game at 6-6 with 19:38 left to play.
Both teams saw opportunities over the next 17 minutes of action, but neither could capitalize. With 2:25 left to play, Saliba and Jorgenson connected for the third time in the contest for the eventual game-winner and Jorgenson's third score of the game.
The Bullets came away with the ball with 1:22 left in the game and Maggie Connolly went to the eight-meter for Gettysburg with a little under a minute left to play. Connolly's shot was blocked and Vanessa Budd came away with the ground ball, which led to a fast transition and Frank took a feed from Paige Moriarty and found the back of the net with .9 seconds left to play to secure the victory.
Saliba finished with two scores and three helpers while Jorgenson scored three times and Frank netted two goals for the Diplomats. Kelly struck once and Mergner finished with two assists.
Caroline Doran led the defense with two caused turnovers and Stephanie Speese came away with two ground balls, while Budd finished with three draw controls.
Danielle Harrington stood tall in the cage with seven stops and improved to 8-1 while Shannon Keeler took the loss with six stops and dropped to 15-3.
The CC Title is the sixth for the Diplomats, 12th overall conference championship, and the victory avenges an earlier loss to the Bullets last week to break Gettysburg's six-game winning streak over the Diplomats. The game marked the 12th time the Bullets and Diplomats have played for the CC Crown. Gettysburg won five straight titles from 2002 to 2006 and the Diplomats matched that feat with five of their own from 2007-2011 while the Bullets have won the previous three championships.