HAMILTON, N.Y. (5/3/08) – For the third time in five years, the Colgate women's lacrosse team has advanced to the NCAA tournament. For the first time in program history, the Raiders punched their ticket to the Big Dance by winning an NCAA play-in game. Colgate survived a late surge by MAAC champion Marist to hold on and win, 19-18, on Saturday, May 3, to earn their NCAA tournament berth.
The Raiders held a comfortable 16-10 lead with 17:04 left in the second half, but the Red Foxes weren't about to go away without a fight. Marist scored five straight goals within six minutes to make it a one-goal game, 16-15, with just over eight minutes to play. Colgate re-took the two-goal lead three times, but the Red Foxes answered every goal to keep things close. However, Marist was never able to take the lead, with its final goal coming with 2:30 on the clock. The Raiders regained possession, set up in their own end, and stalled until time ran out to eke out the one-point win.
Marist started the game strong, scoring two of the first three goals. However, Colgate netted eight of the next nine to break open a 9-3 lead with less than 10 minutes to play. The Raider defense, anchored by junior goalkeeper Sara Drexler (Pottstown, Pa.), kept Marist off the board for nearly 10 minutes. However, the Red Foxes once again scored two of three as time wound down to send the teams into halftime with the Raiders leading, 10-5. Drexler finished the half with nine saves.
The Red Foxes also opened the second half strong, netting four of the first six to cut Colgate's lead to three, 12-9, 4:36 into the period. However, Colgate scored four of the next five to go up 16-10 before letting Marist climb back into the game.
Patriot League Tournament MVP Molly Carroll (Swarthmore, Pa.) once again proved her value to the Raiders as she led her team with five goals. Sophomore Meghan Lawler (Liverpool, N.Y.) added four goals and an assist, while freshman Colleen Bubnack (Syracuse, N.Y.) posted three goals and two assists. Junior Ashley Didio (Syracuse, N.Y.) and senior Jessica Van der Meulen (Liverpool, N.Y.) both netted two goals in the winning effort, and four other Raiders recorded at least one point on the day.
Jessica O'Brien and Kate Noftsker paced Marist with five points each on four goals and an assist. Lindsey Diener, the MAAC co-Offensive Player of the Year, recorded three goals and two assists, while Stephanie Garland added two goals and two helpers. Kellie Considine and Ali Carnabuci each scored two goals, and Considine also chipped in a helper.
Drexler finished the game with a career-high 15 saves, while Marist keeper Liz Burkhard posted nine stops in the game. The Red Foxes outshot Colgate, 39-32, including 20-14 in the second half, and posted a 21-18 advantage on draws. The Raiders earned the edge in groundballs, 18-12, including 11-5 in the first half.
Colgate will find out who they will play in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Monday, May 5, when the 16-team bracket is announced at 8:00 p.m., on a live webcast at NCAAsports.com, and on the CBS College Sports television station. The Raiders will make their third appearance in the NCAA tournament in the last five years on Sunday, May 11.

 

HAMILTON, N.Y. (5/3/08)—Colgate University senior Matt Lalli (Princeton Junction, N.J.) scored a career-high seven points from three goals and four assists to lead the Raiders to a 12-11 upset victory over No. 2 Syracuse on senior day in men’s lacrosse action this afternoon at Andy Kerr Stadium. Sophomore goaltender Tim Harrington (Lutherville, Md.) added the other spectacular performance with 16 saves, including the stop in the final second of action to secure the win.

Lalli became the all-time Colgate career record holder in assists with his four helpers this afternoon. He has 94 on the career, passing Brian Kopp’s previous mark of 92. The win for Colgate marks the first time since 1963-64 the Raiders have beaten the Orange in consecutive seasons. Second-ranked Syracuse is the highest ranked opponent the Raiders have beaten in program history. The previous best was No. 4 Navy in 2006. Colgate pushes its win streak to seven games, with each of the past four wins coming against ranked opponents.

Freshman Zack Craumer (Greenwich, Conn.) added a career-best three goals, while Nick Monastero (Bohemia, N.Y.) tied his career-high with three points from two goals and one assist. Junior Brandon Corp (Chittenango, N.Y.) tallied a pair of goals, including the game-winner.

Mike Leveille, Matt Abbott, Dan Hardy, Greg Niewieroski all had two tallies on the afternoon. Leveille finished with three points overall. The Orange is now 12-2 on the season.

With Colgate leading 12-11 with 29 seconds to play, Syracuse won the faceoff and took it into the box with under 20 ticks left. Matt Abbott fired a shot wide with 18 seconds left and the Orange drew a slashing penalty with eight to play. Syracuse was able to get Dan Loftus open for a shot that went wide with just under five seconds left. Kenny Nims picked up the loose ball to the left of the cage and got a shot off with just under a second, but Harrington stuffed the high shot to ice the landmark victory.

The Raiders came out strong in the opening minutes, getting a pair of goals in the first 2:40. Craumer opened the scoring off an assist from Lalli at 12:26. Just six seconds later, senior faceoff specialist Chris Eck (Fairfield, Conn.) won the ensuing faceoff and raced down the field and beat John Galloway high for his fourth goal of the game.

Syracuse tallied a goal in the final minute to make it 2-1 at the break and the two teams traded goals in the second quarter to head into halftime knotted at four. Monastero and Lalli hooked up in the final minute to make it a tie game after the first two sessions.

The third quarter was all Raiders in the scoring department. Eck won all six faceoffs as Colgate outscored the Orange 5-1 during the 15-minute period. Monastero started things off at the 14:10 mark with man-up tally and Colgate scored four more to take a 9-5 lead into the final quarter.

Leading by four, 10-6 with 13:06 left in the game, Syracuse started to rally and scored three unanswered to make it a one-goal game at the 6:16 mark. Faceoff specialist Chris Eck (Fairfield, Conn.) came back and won the ensuing faceoff to give the Raiders the ball in the final six minutes.

Colgate was able to hold the ball for nearly three minutes before the Orange forced a turnover and cleared the ball into its offensive zone. Stephen Keough got the ball for a good look at goal, but was denied by Harrington once again. Harrington picked up the loose ball and fed it to his defensemen who successfully cleared the ball.

In the box with under three minutes to go, Lalli went to work on his defender and was able to get on the doorstep and fire in his third goal of the game to give Colgate a two-goal cushion with 2:19 to play.

Syracuse won the ensuing faceoff and Matt Abbott got the ball and rifled a shot past Harrington to make it an 11-10 game with 2:02 left to play.

Eck once again came through on the restart with junior Will Planer (Rumson, N.J.) picking up the ground ball. The Raiders got into the box and were met with a high pressure Syracuse defense. Colgate saw the open net chance and just missed, but Kevin Colleluori (Bethpage, N.Y.) picked up the loose ball and fed Corp. Corp dodged the Orange defenseman with a beautiful move and dropped the ball in to give the Raiders a 12-10 lead with 1:30 left on the clock.

The Raiders picked up another win at the “X” but the Orange this time was able to force a Colgate turnover. Syracuse quickly got into the box and called a timeout. Coming out of the short break, the Orange worked the ball around looking for a good shot. Kenny Nims got the ball to the left of the cage and fired a pass to Greg Niewieroski on the doorstep to make it 12-11 and set up a thrilling final 29 seconds.

Eck finished the day 17-of-25 at the faceoff “X” and picked up five ground balls. Planer had seven and Harrington had a career-best five. The Raiders as a team won the ground ball battle 34-24. Syracuse outshot Colgate 40-26 and cleared 24-of-26 times. The Raiders man-down defense kept the Orange off the scoreboard four times, while the man-up offense was 1-of-4 on the day.

Colgate will find out its NCAA Tournament fate on May 4, during the selection show on ESPNU at 9-10 p.m. The Raiders will watch the selection show at the Colgate Inn. The opening round games will be either May 10 or May 11 at a time to be determined.