Pleasantville, N.Y. - Trailing by two at the half, the no. 3 Adelphi University women's lacrosse team battled to an 18-12 victory over no. 2 Pace University Monday afternoon in the Southwest Division semifinals of the Northeast-10 Conference tournament. 

The victory stands as the Panthers (8-3, 6-3 NE10) fifth consecutive win and eighth in their last nine outings. Christina McCabe finished the contest with six points behind a team-high five goals and one assist as Molly Fetherston had a big second half with a hat trick of her own. Three others each added in a pair of tallies and four others registered solo goals. 

The Setters (9-4, 7-3 NE10) came out on fire in the opening frame, scoring three in a matter of five minutes, with a pair of goals coming from Aleya Corretjer, who finished with five in the contest. Adelphi settled in and managed to score five unanswered, with the help of three successfully converted free position shots to take a two-goal advantage. The home team spared no expense and continued winning draw controls and storming into their offensive zone, scoring the next five tallies to regain the lead. 

Both teams traded goals to close out the half, with Alyssa Gillespie finding Christina Ferrara with three seconds left before halftime to keep the Panthers within two. 

Gillespie got things going to start the second half, but a yellow card to Fiona Rafferty gave Pace a woman-up possesison which they capitalized on, to stay up by a pair of goals. Molly Fetherston came off the bench from some lefty power and after her first attempt landed off net, she buried back-to-back goals past Sienna Masullo to even the game at 10-all. 

Kailey Broderick and Alex Beebe were each responsible for three caused turnovers each in the game, as Kerry Ann Flavin chipped in two of her own in a strong defensive second half. 

Corretjer gave the Setters their last lead of the game at 11-10 at 19:43, but the momentum quickly shifted in favor of the third-seeded Panthers who opened up a 7-0 run with a man-up goal from Ferrara. Three consecutive draw control wins from Flavin allowed Adelphi to run their attack, and with success, managed to run up a lead. Kerrin Heuser made it a three-goal margin, but Gianna Bifulco's back-to-back goals doubled the lead to make it 17-11, forcing a Pace timeout with under seven minutes to play. 

Ending a seven-goal run for Adelphi, the Setters' Kayla Conway scored but several stops on defense turned the home team away from any more attempts at the goal. Sealing the dealing for Adelphi, McCabe scored her fifth right on the doorstep with time still left on the clock, but Pace was unable to string anything together, concluding their chance at an NE10 title. 

Pat McCabe and his squad will head to Syracuse on Thursday, May 6 for a chance at the Southwest Division title when they take on the top-seeded Dolphins of Le Moyne.