Garden City, N.Y. - For the third time in as many weeks, the Adelphi University women's lacrosse team faced off against the Stonehill College Skyhawks on Motamed Field, this time in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. Buouyed by eight first half goals and a five point day by
Alexa Froccaro, the Panthers advanced to the Final Four with a 10-6 victory.
Froccaro's five points came by way of two goals and three assists, while
Emily Keesling (2G, 2A) and
Jacqueline Jahelka (2G) also helped lead the offense for Adelphi (19-1).
Ryley Weber and
Kaitlyn Stackpole led the Panther defense with four caused turnovers each, while Weber also picked up four ground balls.
Danielle Jaycox also had a strong day all-around by contributing a goal, causing three turnovers and also picking up four ground balls. Stonehill (15-5) got two goals apiece from Elizabeth Vetter, Rebecca Matheson and Emily Kessel.
Jahelka's two goals came back-to-back to open the game as the first was unassisted and the second came off a pass from
Rachel O'Brien; with that effort, the Panthers held a 2-0 lead after just 3:26. After both teams went scoreless for nearly 10 minutes, a five-goal run with scores from
Danielle Montano, Froccaro,
Rachel Aitkens and O'Brien saw the lead increase to 7-0 with 4:50 to play. While Stonehill got two goals back in the closing four mintues, the Panthers' last goal of the half came off the stick of Keesling to put Adelphi in the locker room with an 8-2 lead.
Vetter and Kessel combined for two goals to open the first half to close the gap to 8-4, and put the pressue on as the Skyhawk defense kept the Panthers of the board for nearly 20 minutes. Keesling's second score of the day came with 10:31 remaining, while Jaycox's came man-up with 2:12 remaining. With the Panthers leading 10-4 Stonehill tacked on two more goals, but eventually ran out of time to complete the comeback.
With the victory, Adelphi advances to the Final Four at Kerr Stadium in Salem, Va. next weekend. In the semifinals, the Panthers will face the Le Moyne College Dolphins in a rematch of the Northeast-10 Championship game. The Dolphins beat the New Haven Chargers, 13-9, earlier on Saturday,
