Courtney Cunningham was the hero again as she scored the game winner with 10 seconds left to send Drew into the Sweet 16 of the 2007 Division III Women's Lacrosse Championships. Cunningham scored five goals and assisted on three others as Drew survived a second half rally from St John Fisher to win 12-11. Fisher came back from a 8-4 halftime deficit to tie the game with 2:12 left, but Cunningham's incredible individual effort sent Drew through. The Rangers will travel to face Middlebury on Saturday.

The game was back and forth for the first ten minutes of play as both teams showed nerves with some loose play. Alex Weber Reitz got Drew on the board first with a goal less than a minute into the game. Lauren Glavin, who would trouble the Rangers all game, scored the next two as the visiting Cardinals took the lead. Allie Bailly and Lindsey Perno scored less than twenty seconds apart after five minutes of play to put Drew up 3-2. Therese Nobilski evened the score for Fisher at 19:52.

The Rangers took the lead on Allison O'Neal's goal nine minutes later. Cunningham assisted on the goal for her 100th point of the season. The game had slowed down during the second ten minutes of the half with both teams playing possession, but O'Neal's goal, a nice hard shot, reopened the scoring. Cunningham scored her first of the game unassisted at 9:12 and Bailly followed four minutes later with a free position goal. Cunningham scored from eight meters at 3:44 with a side-armed rocket into the high right corner. Around the two minute mark, Cunningham set up Samantha Silver by lofting a pass near the crease that Silver picked out of the air and stuffed home for an 8-3 lead. Lauren Quackenbush scored with just under a minute remaining after Katie Glavin found her wrapping around the goal for the 8-4 halftime score.

The Rangers have gotten into the bad habit of giving away leads in the second half and with Fisher putting in a valiant effort, as the game was never out of reach for the Cardinals. The two teams traded goals for the first twenty minutes of the second half. Haley Koperski got Fisher started by cutting across the middle and firing home high and hard three minutes into play. Weber Reitz got an isolation on her defender up top and blazed past her for an unassisted tally after Liz Law had won the draw for Drew. Trish Scudder scored with 22 minutes left after Katie Glavin made a great catch and pass to find her open in the middle to make it 9-6. The game seemed even closer than the three goal difference as Fisher continued to have the majority of the possession. What they didn't have was Cunningham, who gave Drew a 10-6 lead by working a nice play with Meghan Santaniello with 17 minutes left. The senior cut to the middle from behind the net where Santaniello found her for Cunningham to turn and fire home in one move. Katie Glavin pulled the goal back for the Cardinals after Drew keeper Stef Rutkowski had kept her out a minute earlier with a big save.

Cunningham and Bailly would give Drew an 11-7 lead with just over ten minutes to go with one of their trademark goals. Bailly had the ball behind the net before making a run into the eight meter area where she drew the extra defender. Meanwhile Cunningham was coming off a screen and took Bailly's lofted ball in mid-shot to score low past the keeper.

Down by four goals with under ten to play, the Cardinals waited to begin their charge as they had to withstand a long spell of possession from the Ranger offense before Ashley Fenyn took Nobilski's pass on the move and found the back of the net with 6:52 remaining. Lauren Quackenbush, whom the Rangers defended well for the majority of the game, found the net two minutes later for an 11-9 Ranger lead.

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2007-05-09