Junior Brittany Butler (Easton, Conn./Joel Barlow) scored the game-winning goal with two seconds remaining to cap an improbable rally in leading the University of Mary Washington women's lacrosse team to a 12-11 victory over Virginia Wesleyan College on Saturday at the Battleground. Trailing 11-8, the Eagles scored four goals in the final 3:34 of the game, including two in the final 21 seconds.

In a back-and-forth game, the Marlins scored the first two goals before UMW's Lauren Callison scored with 22:12 remaining in the first half, and senior Julia Milner tied the score at two with 11:48 left in the half.

After VWC's Laura Norris netted her second goal of the game to give the Marlins the lead at 3-2, UMW answered with goals from Callison and freshman Catherine Kennedy to take a 4-3 advantage. Norris scored again at 4:57 to tie the score at four, and the Eagles then scored three straight, with two tallies from Butler and a goal from Kennedy to lead 7-4. VWC capped the first half scoring on a goal by Courtney Williams to cut the halftime deficit to 7-5.

The teams traded goals to open the second half, but then Va. Wesleyan scored five straight goals over a 10 minute span to take an 11-8 lead with 6:55 to play. Milner started the comeback with an unassisted goal with 3:34 to go, and Kennedy cut the deficit to 11-10 on an assist from Ellen Bikowski with 1:13 left.

Freshman Allie Kimmelman scored her only goal of the contest with 21 seconds left on a Milner feed to tie the score, setting the stage for Butler's heroics. After Jenny Atmar won the draw and a stoppage for a foul with 13 seconds left, Butler received a pass from Atmar and cut toward goal, and found the net with two seconds remaining for the game winner.

The Eagles were led by Kennedy's four goals and one assist, Butler's three goals, and Kimmelman's goal and three assists. Milner and Callison each scored twice for the Eagles. Virginia Wesleyan was led by Norris' four goals and one assist.

The Eagles outshot the Marlins, 36-21, and had 35 ground balls to 27 for VWC. Freshman Danni Guigli had seven saves for the Eagles, while Ashley Sippel had 14 saves for Va. Wesleyan.

The Eagles will visit #1 ranked Salisbury University on Wednesday in the regular season finale at 4:30 p.m.

2009-04-11