Brittany Jorgenson, Franklin & Marshall
LANCASTER, Pa. – No. 3 Franklin & Marshall punched its ticket to the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Semifinals with a 16-9 win over No. 17 Fredonia in the regional final of the 2015 NCAA Division III Championship on Sunday. F&M (20-2) will be playing in its seventh semifinal and first since 2010.
You can watch video highlights from the game by clicking here.
F&M will face No. 1 Trinity, a 10-5 winner over TCNJ, in next weekend's semifinal game at 4:00 p.m. with the winner advancing to the national championship game on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The games will be played at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.
The Diplomats started the contest out strong and took a 5-0 lead 11 minutes into action. Megan Kelly got things started with a tally at 25:47, before Grace Salibafound Paige Moriarty three minutes later. Saliba struck a minute later to make it 3-0, Moriarty found Jorgenson at 19:22 and Anastasia Mergner put the Diplomats up 5-0 with a score at 19:00. Katie Glagolev put the Blue Devils on the board at 17:02 and F&M countered with three straight to take an 8-1 lead into the break. Saliba and Jorgenson connected on the first goal, while Kelly made it 7-1 on a free position goal and Gabby Frank buried a pass from Kimberly Abruzzo with 16 ticks on the clock to end the run.
Fredonia started out the second half with a 3-0 run and came within four, 8-4, but the Diplomats answered with five straight to put the game out of reach. Emily D'Erasmo started the run at 23:34 before Moriarty found Frank 26 seconds later to make it 10-4. Casey Madden, Jorgenson and Kimberly Abruzzo finished off the run with three goals in a three minute span.
The Blue Devils scored at 16:34 and Abruzzo found Jorgensen with 10:23 left to put F&M up 14-5. Fredonia answered and scored three straight before D'Erasmo struck at 3:07 and Natalie Delinsky put the last point on the board for the Diplomats on a free position shot at 2:11.
Jorgenson finished with a game-high four goals, while Frank along with Kelly and D'Erasmo picked up a pair. Saliba, Moriarty, Abruzzo, Mergner, Delinsky and Madden all scored once while Abruzzo, Moriarty and Saliba finished with one helper apiece.
Vanessa Budd came away with five draws and Mergner collected four, while Samantha Blicht caused three turnovers to pace the defense.
Danielle Harrington improved to 11-1 with three stops and Nicole Burrow took the loss with 13 stops.
F&M outshot Fredonia 33-14, held a 16-11 edge in ground balls and dominated the draw with 21.