Drew women's lacrosse defeated Goucher 13-9 in the Landmark Conference semifinals to advance to the championship game. The Rangers will host Catholic on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Cara Jeffries scored three and assisted on three others as the Rangers held off the Gophers. Goucher's keeper Brittany Foster made 20 saves in a valiant effort, but the Rangers never trailed and led for the final fifty-two minutes of play. Catholic defeated Scranton 18-5 in the other semifinal. Drew improves to 10-7 with the win.

Drew took a 1-0 lead on Lyndsay Rossi's goal just five minutes into the game. Rossi slipped as she made her approach, but managed to maintain possession before scoring low. After Colleen Cole scored for the Gophers, Cara Jeffries gave the Rangers the lead that they would not relinquish. Rebecca Schild scored with 20 minutes left to make it 3-1.

Foster was frustrating the Rangers as she made four saves in the next five minutes to allow the Gophers to close to within one goal when Sandy Okun scored. Jeffries got a free position attempt past Foster with a nice sidearm finish at the half way point of the first half.

The Rangers and Gophers traded goals for the next five scores to put Drew up 6-4. Stacie Brown, whom the Gophers face-guarded for the entire game and over entire length of the field, got her first of three goals despite the defensive emphasis place upon her with a free-position attempt with five minutes remaining.

A nice pass from Jeffries and finish from Brook Connell gave Drew an 8-4 lead before Colleen Cole made it 8-5 with the final goal of the half. The first half was evenly played though the Rangers had the better chances. If not for a number of nice saves from Foster, Drew would have lead by more.

The second half started auspiciously for the Rangers as Brown grabbed one of her nine draw controls and scored her second goal within the first ten seconds of play. Brown scored the half's second goal as well, though it took another seven minutes before she put away that eight meter attempt. Cole scored next for the Gophers with 18 minutes left to make it an uncomfortable 10-6. Drew scored the next two goals to make It 12-6 though Foster made an incredible save to deny Brown in between those tallies. Mary Lambert scored back-to-back goals to make it 12-8 with 13 minutes left.

The game seemed willing to go to the next team to take control, but neither Drew, which was unable to find its way past Foster to secure the win, nor Goucher, which couldn't wrest enough possessions away from Drew to complete its comeback, managed to find the breakthrough. Four times in the next four minutes, Foster frustrated Rossi with fine saves.

Jenny Lucey was able to take advantage of the defensive effort to cut the lead to three with a free-position goal at 8:40. Rossi, who had another terrific full field effort with three goals and six groundballs, scored Drew's final goal with 7:40 left in the half. A pair of saves from Rachel Hanley helped close out the game and punch the ticket to the Championship game.

The Rangers were a bit fortunate to survive this semifinal as they ran into a hot goalkeeper while playing below the level they reached against Catholic last Saturday. Drew will need to play its best to win their first Landmark Conference title when they host the #11 Cardinals on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

2009-04-29