May 22, 2010

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Gettysburg, Pa. - Freshman Demmianne Cook poured in four of her five goals in the second half to lead the Adelphi University women's lacrosse team to a 14-9 win over C.W. Post in the NCAA DII semi-finals. The Panthers (18-1) will take on West Chester tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. for the title. The game will be broadcast live on CBS College Sports.

Sophomore Marissa Mills put the Panthers on board in the 8th minute on a feed from junior Elizabeth Fey. The Pioneer's Brianne Jackolski evened the score at 22:41. Sophomore Erica Devito's solo shot at 18:41 put Adelphi back on top and spurred a 4-0 rally. Mills picked up the second of her three goals at 17:12 but it would take another 10 minutes before the Panthers would score again. Cook's goal at 9:27 with help from Fey made it 4-1. Fey scored next on an assist from junior Kaitlyn Carter with 4:43 left in the half. Jackolski made it 5-2 with just under a minute to go before intermission.

Cook opened the scoring in the second half with an unassisted shot at 28:19. The Panthers had no answer for Jackolski, who notched back to back efforts to close the gap, 6-4 at 26:55. The combo of Fey to Mills made it 7-5 at 25:45, but the Pioneers responded with two straight to close to within one, 7-6, at 24:51. Cook rallied to score two of the next three Adelphi goals as Corinne Pingitore closed the surge on a dish from Fey, 10-6, at 20:13. The Pioneers snuck in a goal at 18:53, but this only fueled the Panthers, who rattled off three unanswered points. Devito scored on an assist from sophomore Claire Petersen, followed by senior Holly Burke with help from Mills. Cook's fifth goal of the evening came with 7:09 left in regulation, 13-7. Post managed to put together one more rally, finding the back of the net twice more, but time ran out as Petersen sealed the win on a solo goal with 19 seconds on the clock.

Senior Caitlin Fitzpatrick recorded the win with six saves, while Domonique Mosca made seven stops for C.W. Post.

"I'm about as proud as I can be of this team," Spallina said. "For our kids to go out there and do what they did. Defense was key and we proved that."

A crowd of just over 500 fans were on hand to witness the Panthers avenge their regular season loss to the Pioneers back on May 1. Adelphi is now 3-1 against C.W. Post at the NCAA Tournament.

"We were humbled by our loss to [Post]," Spallina said. "We went back to playing our defense. I felt really good coming into the game that we were ready. Our goal all season was not to beat Post, but to win a national championship."

West Chester (18-1) advances to Sunday's final after a thrilling come from behind 8-9 overtime win over Lock Haven in the first semi-final. Adelphi is 2-0 against the Golden Rams at the NCAA Championships, defeating them in 2004 and again in 2006 for the title.