SALISBURY, Md. - The top-seed Salisbury University women's lacrosse team captured their seventh straight and ninth overall Capital Athletic Conference championship with a 16-8 victory over third-seed University of Mary Washington on Friday night at Sea Gull Stadium. The top-ranked Sea Gulls claim the conference's automatic berth into next month's NCAA Division III tournament, where they will make their seventh straight and 10th overall appearance.

The Sea Gulls (17-1) were led by reigning CAC Player of the Week Meagan Osipowich as the sophomore attacker had five goals and one assist. The six points sets a new career-high for the Hauppauge, N.Y., native. Osipowich's five goals tied her career-high which she set April 15 in the regular-season contest against the Eagles.

Junior attacker Beth Rhodey scored three goals with one assist. Senior midfielders Robyn Bishop (one assist) and Holly Johnson each scored two goals. Sophomore attackers Logan Bilderback (one assist) and Trish DiGirolomo and freshman Carrie Bray and Georgi Porter each scored one goal. Sophomore midfielder Aileen McCausland (two caused turnovers) dished out one assist.

Salisbury built a 4-0 lead in the first nine minutes of the game after a pair of goals by Osipowich and goals scored by DiGirolomo and Rhodey. The Eagles (13-7) scored their first goal with less than 17 minutes left in the first half. The two teams would score three goals each to close out the first half as Salisbury led 7-4 at the break.

The Sea Gulls outshot the Eagles 18-13 in the first half and scooped up 12 ground balls to UMW's eight. SU cleared 7 of 10 in the first half while Mary Washington cleared 7 of 12 opportunities. Mary Washington won 7 of 12 draw controls.

The two teams opened up the second half with one goal each before SU scored four straight to put the game out of reach with less than 15 minutes left. Senior goalie Sonja Stuart played the entire game as she stopped nine Eagle shots and scooped up three ground balls.

Freshman goalie Dannie Guigli takes the loss for the Eagles as she made 12 saves in 60 minutes of action. Ellen Bikowski scored a team-high three goals, while Katie Wallis and Catherine Kennedy each scored two goals.

SU outshot UMW 40-24 and made 13 of 19 clear attempts while the teams split the draw controls, 13 apiece. Salisbury also scored four free position goals.

The Sea Gulls have now reeled off 58 consecutive CAC victories since 2003. The Sea Gull senior class finishes with an unblemished CAC record to go with four straight CAC championships.

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The University of Mary Washington women's lacrosse team dropped a 16-8 decision at top-ranked Salisbury University on Friday night in the Capital Athletic Conference championship. The Eagles fall to 13-7 overall on the season.

The Sea Gulls opened the game with a 4-0 scoring run, but the Eagles scored four of the game's next six goals to cut the deficit to 6-4 with 2:36 remaining in the first half. Freshman Catherine Kennedy scored at 16:32 to get the Eagles on the scoreboard, and Kennedy, Ellen Bikowski, and Allie Kimmelman all netted goals in the run. Salisbury scored in the final minutes to take a 7-4 lead to halftime.

The second half saw Salisbury score the opening goal, but sophomore Katie Wallis cut the deficit to 8-5 with 24:30 remaining. Salisbury scored the next four goals to take a 12-5 lead, and Bikowski netted her second goal of the game to make the score 12-6. Wallis scored at 11:41 after another Sea Gull goal to move the score to 13-7, But the Gulls scored the next three goals to up their lead to 16-7. Bikowski scored the game's final goal with 2:29 to go to cap the scoring.

Salisbury outshot the Eagles, 40-24, with each team grabbing 13 draw controls. Freshman Danni Guigli had 12 saves for UMW, while Sonja Stewart had nine stops for Salisbury.

The Eagles will now await a possible NCAA Tournament bid, to be announced next week.

2009-04-25