Box Score
LEXINGTON, Va. --- Roanoke fell to #15 Washington and Lee, 21-13 in the 2011 ODAC Women's Lacrosse Championship Sunday afternoon at Watt Field. The loss ends the Maroons season at 12-8 while the Generals (14-4) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year. The Generals earned their 12th conference championship.
Roanoke controlled the opening five minutes of the contest, assuming a 2-0 lead after a free position goal by senior attacker
Carolyn Miller (Clinton, MD, St. Mary's Ryken) at the 27:56 marker and an unassisted tally from senior midfielder
Meegan Rourke (Greenwich, CT, Millbrook School) with 25:41 on the clock.
W&L responded, netting five unanswered goals over a 4:22 span to assume a 5-2 advantage with 17:41 remaining in the first half. It would be the only lead change of the game.
Both teams exchanged goals over the final minutes of the first half, as Roanoke received two goals from Rourke and a goal from Miller,
Emily Knade (Easton, MD, St. Peter and Paul) and
Allison Bonanno (Ridgewood, NJ, Ridgewood), while W&L netted three goals to take an 11-7 advantage at the half.
The Generals opened scoring after halftime with Emmy Mathews recording her fifth goal of the contest to give W&L a five-goal lead. Roanoke stayed within reach, receiving consecutive goals from seniors
Gina Valles (South Windsor, CT, Westminster ) and Rourke to pull to within three, 12-9, with just three-minutes into the second half.
W&L proved too much, as eight of the next nine goals resulted in the Generals largest lead of the game, 20-10, with 7:53 remaining. Roanoke tallied three late goals, but it was not enough as the Generals claimed the 21-13 final margin. It was the highest-scoring contest in a women's lacrosse ODAC Championship game, giving W&L its seventh win over Roanoke in a conference championship game.
Three Roanoke keepers saw time, with senior
Lyndsey Jones (Easton, MD, St. Peter and Paul) (6-6) taking the loss after allowing 15 goals and recording six saves in 39:06. Junior
Cristina Scichilone (South Yarmouth, MA, Nauset Regional) played 13:04, allowing three goals and stopping two shots, while sophomore
Laura Zdziarski (Gainesville, FL, Buchholz) played 7:50, allowing three goals.
The Maroons were led by Valles, who finished with six points (3g, 3a). She entered today's game ranked among the national-leaders in scoring (2nd), assists (8th), caused turnovers (10th), groundballs (7th) and goals (9th). The team captain finished her illustrious career ranked among the best in NCAA Div. III history in career points (420-2nd), goals (288-5th), groundballs (267-14th), draw controls (199-8th) and caused turnovers (134-7th). She set single-season records this season with assists (52), goals (82) and points (134), which also finished as the seventh-best single-season total in NCAA Div. III history. Her 100 groundballs were 10 shy of the single-season record.
Rourke collected five groundballs and scored a team-high five goals to share the single-season goals record with teammate Valles with 82. Rourke came into today's game ranked seventh nationally in goals. She finished her career 10th on the career scoring list (168pts), seventh in goals (130), third in draw controls (126) and second in caused turnovers with 126. Her 105 points this spring was just behind Valles for the school-record but did get the single-season record in caused turnovers with 56. The senior won six draw controls to give her 87 on the year, six shy of the school-record.
Miller finished with three goals and an assist as she finished 14th all-time at Roanoke in career scoring. She also ranks 11th in career goals (53). Miller, along with Rourke and Valles, totaled four caused turnovers each. Bonanno had a goal and two assists for the Maroons.
For their efforts, Brown, Mathews, Shearin and Van Horn were all named to the ODAC All-Tournament team, where they were joined by RC's Miller, Rourke and Valles. Also named to the squad were Lynchburg's Morgan Logue and Christina Tran and Virginia Wesleyan's Kate Collier and Mari Carmichael.
