St. Mary's City, Md. – The third-seeded University of Mary Washington women's lacrosse team posted a 23-17 victory over second-seeded and No. 19 St. Mary's College of Maryland Tuesday afternoon to advance to Friday's Capital Athletic Conference championship game.

In the CAC title contest, the Eagles (13-6) will face the winner of tonight's other semifinal match between top-seeded and No. 1 Salisbury University and No. 4 Stevenson University.

Sophomore attacker Katie Wallis (Cypress, Texas/Cy-Creek) led the Eagles to the victory with a career- and game-high seven goals and two assists, while freshman midfielder Catherine Kennedy (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Lutheran) added five goals and senior attacker Julia Milner (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area) had four goals and a helper.

Wallis' three consecutive goals in the game's first 5:30 gave Mary Washington a 3-0 lead before three Seahawk tallies, including a pair from senior attacker Emily Norris (Timonium, Md./Dulaney) knotted the contest at 3-all at 21:45.

A six-goal surge with two from Wallis and two from freshman midfielder Kaitlin Aquino (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) established a five-goal (11-6) cushion for Mary Washington with 2:25 remaining in the first half. Midfielders Laura Leigh Cooper (Fruitland, Md./James M. Bennett) and Allie Zerhusen (Cockeysville, Md./Park) netted back-to-back goals in 1:43 for an 11-8 Eagle halftime lead.

St. Mary's (12-5) opened up the second stanza with two goals in 27 seconds to close the gap to 11-10 at 29:09. Mary Washington rattled off six unanswered goals, including three from Milner, to break open the game with 15:52 left in the game. The Seahawks put together a 4-1 run to pull within 18-14 at 8:23 but UMW scored five of the game's final eight for the 23-17 final.

Senior midfielder Lauren Carrier (Crownsville, Md./Old Mill) paced the Seahawk offense with four goals and matched her career-high with four assists for eight points. Carrier's NCAA Division III record for consecutive games with at least one goal reached 59 straight with her performance today. She started the streak as a freshman on April 15, 2006 in a loss to Mary Washington.

Norris and junior attacker Nora Fallon-Oben (Silver Spring, Md./St. John's College [D.C.]) each tallied four goals for St. Mary's, while Zerhusen contributed three goals and two assists.

Mary Washington fired off 43 shots to the Seahawks' 27, while edging the home team 26-22 in ground balls. The Eagles dominated the draw controls, 24-18, as freshman midfielder Ellen Bikowski (Fairfax, Va./Bishop O'Connell) grabbed a game-high six.

Freshman Danni Guigli (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley) needed just five saves to pick up her 12th victory between the pipes. In her first career start, sophomore Jamie Roberts (Rockville, Md./Rockville) put forth a valiant effort, making a season-high 13 saves for the Seahawks.

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Sophomore Katie Wallis scored seven goals and added a pair of assists to lead the University of Mary Washington women's lacrosse team to a 23-17 win at #19 St. Mary's College in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament semifinals on Tuesday afternoon in St. Mary's City, Md. The Eagles, who also received five goals from Catherine Kenendy and a goal and five assists fromn Allie Kimmelman, improve to 13-6 on the season, and will visit #1 ranked Salisbury University on Friday for the 2009 CAC Championship.

In what proved to be a game of runs, the Eagles struck first, with Wallis netting the first three goals of the game. After the Seahawks scored three straight to tie the score, UMW answered with goals from Kimmelman and Julia Miler to take a 5-3 lead. The Seahawks scored three more times to take a 6-5 lead, but UMW scored the next six goals, including a pair from Wallis and two from kaitlin Aquino, to take an 11-6 advantage. UMW led, 11-8, at halftime.

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2009-04-21