Women's Lacrosse Advances To NCAA Second Round

CMS beat the University of Redlands Bulldogs 19-11 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championships on Wednesday afternoon.  With the victory, the 16th-ranked Athenas advance to the second round for a matchup with seventh-ranked Gettysburg College.  The game will be Saturday, May 14 at 2:30 pm (Eastern) in Salisbury, MD.  This is the second straight year and the third time in four years that CMS has won a first round game at home and advanced to the second round.

Redlands (13-5), which had lost to CMS (16-2) twice in SCIAC play, jumped out to an early 2-0 and kept the Athenas off the board for over 11 minutes.  After CMS scored three straight to take their first lead, Redlands answered back and retook the lead at 4-3 on the second of Aimee Duwan's team-high four goals just over 11 minutes into the game.  Four different CMS players scored goals over a three minute period to give CMS a 7-4 lead it would not relinquish.  The teams traded goals to end the first half with CMS leading 8-5.

The Athenas increased their lead to 13-6 with 17:58 remaining with Kaitlyn Desai scoring two of her team-high six goals during the run.  Redlands battled back with two 12-on-11 goals and then CMS reeled off four straight with Desai scoring two more to give CMS a 17-9 lead.  The Bulldogs cut the deficit to six with just under three minutes remaining, but the Athenas top scorers on the season, Sarah Dick and Madi Shove, each scored to push the score to its final of 19-11.

Desai led CMS with six goals.  Dick scored three and added a team-high four assists.  Shove had three goals and two assists.  Ali Abramovitz, Rachel Darby and Maddie Bannon each scored a pair of goals.  Bannon helped CMS to a 21-11 advantage in draw controls as she controlled 10 herself.  Katie Campbell-Morrison went all 60 minutes between the pipes and made eight saves in the game.

Dewan led Redlands with four goals.  Christy Smith, Jacky Craycraft and Kali Wilgus each scored a pair of goals.  Blair Callaghan led the Bulldogs with three assists.  KK McCaslin led the team with seven draw controls.  Ana Martinez had 11 saves in goal.

The winner of the CMS-Gettysburg game will play the winner of Saturday's Washington & Lee-Salisbury game at 1:00 (Eastern) on Sunday.