Garden City, N.Y. - On Saturday, May 12, the #1 ranked women's lacrosse team will take to Hickox Field in Brookville, N.Y. to play against the #5 Pioneers of C.W. Post at noon in the first round of the NCAA Championship Tournament. The winner will advance to the Final Four where they will face Le Moyne College on Thursday, May 17 at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. The Panthers are in the hunt for their sixth overall and fourth straight National Championship while their counterparts are searching for their third title in program history.

Long Island's Biggest Rivalry
Before women's lacrosse existed on the Garden City campus, the Adelphi-C.W. Post rivalry, stretched out across all sports, have always been the most anticipated of the year. On March 28, 2001, the Pioneers women's lacrosse team took the first meeting and would go on to win the next three. Since then, the Brown and Gold have won eight of the last 13. In regular season contests, C.W. Post reigns supreme, leading the series with a 8-4 advantage. However, when it comes to post season, five games have been in the NCAA Championship Tournament with Adelphi holding a 4-1 advantage.
 
Achilles Heel
Since 2006, the Panthers have won 118 games to date while dropping just seven. However, five of those defeats have come from the Pioneers. With the exception of last year's 19-7 Panther win, each of the games have been decided by five goals or less.
 
Lately, to the Wire
Over the last four games, the scoring differential has been just six goals with Adelphi holding a +2 advantage over their opponents. Two of those games went into overtime and two of them were decided by just one goal. On March, 24, the Panthers pulled out a 10-8 win over #8 New Haven.

They then lost to #3 C.W. Post four days later by a score of 13-11 in overtime to close out the regular season. In the conference playoffs, the trend of close games continued with #6 Stonehill in the semifinals as Adelphi came away with another overtime win, 12-11. In their most recent game, they defeated the then-top-ranked Dolphins of Le Moyne, 12-11.
Panthers on the Prowl
 
Pioneer Game Changers
Jackie Sileo. The sophomore is ranks tops on the team, in the East Coast Conference, and in the country in points with 124, points per game with 7.29 and assists with 86. On three occasions this year, the six-time ECC Player of the week has posted double digit point figures earning 11 points on two occasions and 12 during a game against Southern New Hampshire.

Her counterpart, Ashley Owen, leads the Pioneers in goals with 64 and is second on the team in assists with 14 and points with 78. Her marks also rank her among the nation's elite in four categories; 19^th in points, 20^th in points per game with 4.59, 8^th in goals per game with 3.76 and 7^th in goals.
                
Battle of Offensive Titans
Both squads have proven to be offensive heavy this year as they both rank in the top six in three categories. Adelphi leads their rivals in scoring offense with 18.28 goals per game. The mark ranks them tied for second with Rollins while C.W. Post comes in at number five with 17.12 goals per game.

The Panthers have outscored opponents by an average of 10 goals per game with is third best in the country while the Pioneers sit two spots behind them with an 8.88 scoring margin. When it comes to overall points, the Brookville squad has accumulated just eight more points than the Brown and Gold, 458-450. Those marks are good enough for third and fourth best in all of Division II respectively.
 
Defense a Must
The Panthers boast an impressive defensive line that features Northeast-10 First-Team All-Conference and Defensive Player of the Year in Jacqueline Williams, Second-Team All-Conference honoree, Tara Gangarossa, and veteran senior, Courtney Acker. The trio has been the backbone of the Panther defense that has held opponents to just 8.28 goals per game which is fifth best in the nation.

Additionally, as a team, they have caused an average of 11 turnovers per game (fourth in the NCAA) which junior Meg Brown is a big part of, causing a team leading 23 turnovers.

Jordann Dempsey, the mainstay in the cage for the Brown and Gold, has also been a big part of the success of the squad this year. The Sparks, MD native has logged just over 984 minutes in net, made 87 saves, and was credited with 16 wins. Additionally, her 8.17 goals against average is fourth best in the country.

The Historic Slate

Date	Location	Score	Winner	Margin of Victory
3/28/01	Brookville, N.Y.	13-6	C.W. Post	7
5/4/02	Garden City, N.Y.	17-8	C.W. Post	9
5/3/03	Brookville, N.Y.	16-10	C.W. Post	6
5/1/04	Garden City, N.Y.	15-9	C.W. Post	6
5/13/04*	Neutral	11-10	Adelphi	1
5/7/05	Brookville, N.Y.	13-12	Adelphi	1
5/6/06	Garden City, N.Y.	14-13 (OT)	C.W. Post	1
5/13/06*	Neutral	9-8	Adelphi	1
3/29/07	Brookville, N.Y.	10-6	C.W. Post	4
5/2/08	Brookville, N.Y.	7-4	Adelphi	3
5/15/08*	Neutral	9-4	C.W. Post	5
5/2/09	Brookville, N.Y.	14-9	Adelphi	5
5/16/09*	Garden City, N.Y.	15-10	Adelphi	5
5/1/10	Garden City, N.Y.	16-21	C.W. Post	5
5/22/10*	Neutral	14-9	Adelphi	5
4/22/11	Brookville, N.Y.	19-7	Adelphi	12
4/28/12	Garden City, N.Y.	13-11 (OT)	C.W. Post	2

*Denotes NCAA Tournament
 
Breaking Down the Rivalry
-C.W. Post leads the series 9-8 with their latest win on April 28.
-Adelphi is 1-5 when playing at home.
-Adelphi is 4-3 when playing away.
-Adelphi is 3-1 when playing C.W. Post on neutral ground.
-The last time the Panthers lost at C.W. Post was on March 29, 2007 by a score of 10-6
-Largest Adelphi win: 12 goals (April 22, 2011)
-Largest Adelphi loss: nine goals (May 4, 2002)
-Six games have been decided by three or fewer goals while four of them have been decided by one goal