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 Rookie Taylor Donohue's career-high six-point effort propelled GW past St. Bonaventure 15-9 and into the A-10 Championship final for the first time. |
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Women's Lacrosse Advances to A-10 Championship Final With 15-9 Win Over St. Bonaventure
May 4, 2007
PHILADELPHIA, PA - The No. 2 seed George Washington women's lacrosse team tallied eight unanswered goals bridging the first and second halves to defeat third-seeded St. Bonaventure, 15-9, in the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals at Temple's Geasey Field on Friday to advance to its first-ever league title game.
GW (11-6) will face two-time defending tournament champion and top-seeded Richmond in the A-10 Championship game on Sunday at 3:00 pm. The game will be nationally broadcast on CSTV, the first time the league title game will be televised. The Spiders defeated the host Temple Owls, 13-6, in the afternoon's first semifinal. The winner of Sunday's title tilt earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, set to begin on Sunday, May 13, at selected campus sites.
"I'm excited for the team with what it has accomplished this season and for what it has done for our young program," said two-time A-10 Coach of the Year Chrissy Lombard-Adair. "The goal at the beginning of the season was to win the A-10 Championship and now it is one game away. We're anxious and ready to play Richmond on Sunday."
The victory is GW's first in A-10 Championship play. The Colonials lost in the semifinals in their only other appearance in 2005. GW's four-game winning streak ties the second longest in program history.
Freshman Taylor Donohue set career-highs with six points and five goals to help the Colonials overcome an early three-goal deficit. GW started slow for the second consecutive game against the Bonnies, falling behind 4-1 after 12 minutes of play. Donohue jump-started a furious rally by finishing a pass from junior Kristin Karcsh with 14:15 left in the first half.
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Karcsh took the ensuing draw and netted her second goal of the game just 12 seconds later to trim GW's deficit to 4-3. St. Bonaventure leading scorer Katelyn Faas scored her second goal of the game with 12:19 left in the period, but the Bonnies wouldn't score another goal for more than 22 minutes as the Colonials' defense tightened.
Sophomore Katherine Sampson scored unassisted with 6:51 left in the half to make it 5-4. Junior Katelyn Honeyford, who played for the first time since injuring her knee at Temple on April 15, converted an assist from Donohue 1:38 later to draw even with the Bonnies at 5-5. Donohue gave GW the lead for good with a free position goal at the 4:07 mark.
The Colonials weren't finished with the first half, however, and scored three more goals in the closing 1:24 of the first stanza to assume a commanding 9-5 lead at the break. Karcsh fired a low, underhanded shot to complete her seventh hat trick of the season with 84 seconds left. Senior Molly Gannon took the following draw straight to cage for her fifth goal of the season with 1:14 remaining, then Sampson tossed in a rebound of Karcsh's missed free position shot with 26.6 ticks to go before halftime for the four-goal advantage.
Donohue made it seven straight for GW with a free position tally, her third of the game, just 53 seconds into the second half. Junior Lindsay Melvin concluded the run with an unassisted strike with 28:14 left to give the Colonials a seemingly insurmountable 11-6 lead.
St. Bonaventure (8-7) netted the next three goals to close the gap to 11-8 with 16:20 left. However, junior goalkeeper Caitlin Garman made a number of stops during the Bonnies' rally attempt to keep SBU at arms length.
Junior Laura Wunk dashed any chance of a St. Bonaventure comeback with back-to-back goals more than nine minutes apart. The GW lead stretched to six on two occasions in the final 6:26 as Donohue rounded out her career day with a pair of goals.
Karcsh extended her point-scored streak to 17 games with four points on three goals and an assist and won a game-high four draw controls. Karcsh has 120 career points, one shy of tying Jenny Heisler for third on GW's all-time career points list.
Melvin produced her third multi-point effort in the last four games with three points on a goal and two assists. Katelyn Honeyford, Wunk and Sampson each finished with two points.
The GW defense caused seven turnovers and won 18 ground balls, led by senior Kim Andreola's six ground balls and four caused turnovers. Sophomore Katie Lilly also won a game-high six ground balls.
Garman was credited with four saves on 20 shots faced. St. Bonaventure goalkeeper Eboni Preston turned away 15 of GW's 45 total shots.
