Box Score
Box score
24 hours after defeating Converse 12-11 in overtime in the
regular season finale, the Belmont Abbey women's lacrosse team
pulled away in the second half and defeated the Valkyries 15-5 in
the quarterfinal round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament.
Belmont Abbey advances to Saturday's semifinal against top-seeded
Limestone Saturday afternoon in Burlington, North Carolinas as it
improves to 8-8, while Converse ends its season with a mark of
9-9.
In a scheduling quirk, the two teams met Monday at Alumni Field
in the regular season finale, with the winner hosting the loser the
following day. With the Abbey's victory on Monday, the Crusaders
clinched the fourth seed and hosted the rematch 24 hours later on
the same field.
Unlike yesterday's game, in which the Crusaders used a second
half rally after trailing 6-4 at the half, Belmont Abbey put this
one away midway through the first half. After Converse's
Sydnie Hickey knotted the game at two with 17:12 to play in the
half, the Crusaders scored seven unanswered goals, five coming to
close the half to carry a 7-2 lead into the break. The last goal of
the string, by Molly Schaefer, raised the Abbey's lead to 9-2 with
just under two minutes gone.
Converse scored two of the next three goals to close the gap to
10-4, but the Abbey scored the next five straight, three by
freshman Reese Gassie, who also had an assist in the flurry, on
Lauren DiChiara's strike.
Jordy Taylor scored the last goal of the game with 3:40 to play
to produce the final score. Belmont Abbey outscored Converse 8-3 in
the final 30 minutes.
Gassie scored five goals on six shots and also had two assists.
She won a draw control and scooped up two ground balls. Lindsay
Connolly, Rebecca Diggs and Megan Patton each scored twice, while
Schaefer, DiChiara, Katy Connery and Gina Colella all netted one.
Connolly handed out three assists, while Gassie and Ariel Walker
had a pair.
Defensively, Colella led all players with four ground balls,
while Diggs caused three turnovers. Schaefer also had one. Danielle
Ruffalo stopped seven shots.
