Katie Willis, Gettysburg
Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Dickinson College trimmed a six-goal deficit down to two with two minutes to go, but third-ranked Gettysburg College won the final draw and ran out the remaining time to pull out a 15-13 victory in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Championship Saturday at Clark Field.
Gettysburg (16-2) advances to the conference finals for the 17th consecutive season. The defending champs will meet No. 10 Franklin & Marshall College (15-4), which defeated Muhlenberg College (13-4) 15-7 in Saturday's second semi, for the conference crown on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Clark Field.
The Bullets were in control for most of the game and jumped out to a 3-0 lead following a goal by junior Katie Willis (Baltimore, Md./Notre Dame Prep) at 23:58.
Dickinson (10-8) goalie Tara Cuddihy posted a pair of saves in the next three minutes with the last setting up a goal by Anne Dunster at 18:02. Dunster followed up with another tally to pull the Red Devils to 3-2 on the scoreboard.
Willis kick-started a 6-0 run by the hosts with a pair of well-placed shots at the cage. Junior Katie Landry (Hingham, Mass./Hingham) and senior Caroline Jaeger (Hampton, N.J./North Hunterdon) each scored twice during the run as the Bullets went into halftime with a 9-3 advantage.
Sam Marmo pulled Dickinson back into the contest by netting three of the first four goals of the second half, with the last cutting the Gettysburg lead to 10-6 with 26:27 left.
The difference remained four until a quick 3-1 run by the Bullets. Jaeger tossed in her fourth goal of the game to make it 14-8 with just under 13 minutes to play.
After junior Maggie McClain (Wexford, Pa./Sewickley Academy) made it 15-9 with 5:30 left, Dickinson made its run behind the draw skills of senior Maddy Siebold. Siebold won each of the next four draw controls and the Red Devils took advantage by scoring four times. A tally by Maddie Parker made it 15-13 with 2:02 to go.
Freshman Courtney Patterson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional) secured the final draw of the game and Gettysburg ran out the rest of the time.
Dickinson led in shots (26-25) and draw controls (18-12), while Gettysburg led in ground balls (15-9).
Willis tied her personal highs with four goals and five points, while Jaeger also tied a career high with four goals. Landry finished with two goals and three assists and McClain tallied a pair of goals. Patterson scored a goal and picked up four draw controls.
Junior Cassie Smith (Phoenix, Md./St. Paul's School for Girls) turned in four draw controls and three ground balls to pace the Gettysburg defense. Sophomore Brooke Holechek (Reisterstown, Md./Notre Dame Prep) tallied two ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
Senior Shannon Keeler (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) started and finished the game and made two saves in 39 minutes. Sophomore Bailey Pilder (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) posted six saves in 20 minutes of action.
Siebold turned in a monster game off the draw, racking up a dozen draw controls. She also scored three goals and one assist. Marmo and Parker each tallied hat tricks, while Eleanor Kaestner and Dunster each tallied two goals. Goalie Tara Cuddihy recorded three ground balls and five saves.
Gabby Frank, Franklin & Marshall
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Paige Moriarty and Gabby Frank combined for nine goals to lead the No. 10 Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse team to a commanding 15-7 victory over Muhlenberg in Saturday's Centennial Conference (CC) Semifinals. The Diplomats improved to 15-4 on the season while the Mules dropped to 13-4.
F&M will face off against Gettysburg on the road in tomorrow's CC Final at 3:00 p.m. The occasion marks the fifth-straight year the two teams will battle in the Title game with the Diplomats looking for their first Championship since 2015.
A trio of goals, including two free-position scores, in the opening nine minutes of action, allowed F&M to storm in front with the early 3-0 edge. Muhlenberg finally answered with 19:47 to go in the frame with a Jordy Bonvini free-positon marker to make it 3-1, before a pair of Moriarty tallies, including an unassisted score with just 20 seconds remaining, sent the Diplomats into the break with a 5-1 advantage.
Muhlenberg scored two of the first three second-half goals to cut the deficit to 6-3 with 26:44 left on the clock, but another two from Moriarty, followed by a Frank unassisted goal increased the lead to six.
Just 30 seconds later, the Mules hung around with an Amanda Tullo tally that made the score 9-4, but the Diplomats' prolific offense answered again with two in a row from Maddie Hughes and Katie Groenke for the seven-goal edge. The Mules notched the next two goals to once again pull within five before Frank put a halt to the Muhlenberg momentum by taking a feed from Hannah Serling and finding the back of the net with 6:30 left.
The Mules responded with a quick up goal just 12 seconds later, before Serling, Siobhan Burke and Frank scored the final three goals of the game. Serling notched an unassisted marker at 2:55 while Burke was assisted by Moriarty with 1:07 left and Frank tallied an unassisted score with only nine seconds to go.
Moriarty led the attack with five goals and two assists, followed by Frank with four goals. Hughes scored twice and dished out one helper while Serling scored once and was credited with one assist.
Serling and Hughes both collected three ground balls. Serling added three draw controls and caused two turnovers while Hughes caused three turnovers.
Goalkeeper Danielle Harrington earned the win to improve to 13-4 after stopping eight shots in 60 minutes of competition. Sara Allison (13-4) suffered the loss after registering six saves.