LAURINBURG, N.C.-Senior Kelsey Binggeli (Newark, N.Y.) had a team-high five points on her 'Senior Day' but Rollins College never trailed in a 16-14 women's lacrosse victory over host St. Andrews Presbyterian College on Sunday afternoon. The Tars won their fifth straight game to improve to 9-2 overall while the Lady Knights dip to 9-6.

The St. Andrews coaching staff honored its six seniors after the game including Binggeli, Eryn McCaffrey (Cicero, N.Y.), Courtney Ross (Newark, N.Y.), Katie Wright (Waterloo, N.Y.), Katie Rhodes (Auburn, N.Y.), and Alexa Muraida (Austin, Texas).

In a close game that included an 8-8 tie at halftime and a 10-10 deadlock midway through the second half, Rollins finally pulled away with five consecutive goals in an eight-minute outburst. SAPC scored four of the last five goals to cut the deficit to two goals but ran out of clock.

Junior Marissa Giannerini (Baltimore, Md.) had game-highs of five goals and seven assists to lead Rollins to the win.

The Tars scored the first three goals of the game in the first two minutes and held a small lead throughout the first half until the Knights scored the final two goals of the half in a 40 second span while Rollins was serving a penalty to knot the score at the midway break.

The visitors regained a two-goal advantage with two goals over the second half but senior Wright and sophomore Alexis Goldman (Winter Springs, Fla.) netted a back-to-back goals to tie the contest for the second time at 10-10. Sophmore Liz Connelly (Longwood, Fla.) netted the go-ahead goal with 14:31 left in the final stanza that started the Tars clutch five-goal run.

Giannerini's fifth goal of the day with less than four minutes remaining looked to give Rollins a run-away victory as the Tars lead grew to 16-11 but St. Andrews never kept fighting. Brown scored her fourth goal on a feed from Wright with 2:45 remaining; Binggeli completed an eight-meter free position shot with 1:38 left; and Goldman pulled the Knights to within two with 31.4 seconds showing on the clock on by grabbing a ground ball off a rebounded shot and quickly firing putting away the second-chance shot.

Freshman Tori Snow (Marblehead, Mass.) won the ensuing draw control and the Tars were able to run out the final 30 seconds to pick up the impressive victory.

Rollins held slight 38-31 shot and 18-14 draw control advantages while SAPC had a 17-16 ground ball edge. The Tars scored on 3-of-6 free-position shots while the Knights only found the back of the cage on 4-of-12 free-position shots.

McCaffrey had a game-high 13 saves for St. Andrews while Tars senior counterpart Lisa Weber (Winter Springs, Fla.) made nine stops in the win.

Wright finished with two goals and two assists while Goldman had a pair of goals and one helper. St. Andrews got its other goals off the sticks of Courtney Ross, freshman Cara Manas (Harwood, Md.), and sophomore Kim McDaniel (Joppa, Md.). Ross also had a team-high five draw controls.

Connelly netted a hat trick for Rollins while a trio of Tars had two tallies including Snow, freshman Bizzie Durell (Columbus, Ohio), and sophomore Katy Tyszko (Clermont, Fla.). Snow and Tyszko both had one assist for three-point performances.

St. Andrews host Pfeiffer University on Thursday in a Conference Carolinas clash at 4:00 p.m.

* * * *

LAURINBURG, N.C. (April 5, 2009) - Junior midfielder Marissa Giannerini led the Tars with five goals and two assists to help Rollins to a big 16-14 victory over the St. Andrews Presbyterian College Knights on Sunday afternoon. Rollins upsets the Knights on their senior day and advances to 9-2 on the season, while the Knights drop to an overall mark of 9-6.

1 2    Next  »

2009-04-05