Pleasantville, N.Y. — A back and forth affair saw the #2 seeded Adelphi University women's lacrosse team outlast the #1 seed Pace University in the Northeast-10 final, earning the Panthers their eighth conference championship.
Ashley Kolomenchuk opened up the scoring less than three minutes into the contest, but Pace responded just 29 seconds later to tie the game.
With the score knotted at one, Adelphi went on a tear, ripping off five goals (from Payson Hedges, Julia Foppiano, Sonny Lionetti, Kolomenchuk and Amanda Lee) in four minutes to take a commanding 6-1 lead. This forced the top-seeded Setters to call a timeout and pull their starting goaltender.
The strategy seemed to work as Pace responded with three unanswered to end the quarter only down 6-4.
To start the second, Foppiano tallied another goal to try and restart Adelphi 'an offense but Pace did not go away. Backed by a full crowd, the home team once again went on a run, this time rattling off four goals in a row to go up 8-7 heading into the break.
The second half was scoreless for its first five minutes before Lee received a pass from Rita Sefransky and found the back of the net for the second goal, tying the game at eight. Not too much later, Sefransky scored herself to regain Adelphi the lead.
Pace then controlled the middle of the field for the next few minutes, scoring two quick goals and going up 10-9. The game continued to ebb and flow as the Cats stayed resilient. After once again going down, they turned up the offensive intensity and Marilee Colalillo found twine for the team's tenth goal. Just 50 seconds later, Foppiano scored her third goal of the game to put Adelphi up 11-10 heading into the final quarter.
Right after the draw control to start the fourth, the Panthers sprinted down the field where Kolomenchuk dished it to Hedges who put the Brown and Gold up 12-10. The Setters again were able to respond to make it a one goal game, but Sefransky scored to put the score at 12-10.
For the next six minutes, the rivals were locked into a defensive battle. Madison Marchetta made big save after big save to keep Adelphi in front before Kolomenchuk put the Cats up three with just under four minutes to play.
Pace called a timeout and turned up the pressure on the Panther defense, scoring twice to make it a one goal game with 1:47 remaining.
Trailing 14-13, the Setters made a final push but were stood up by the Cats as they forced a turn over. Adelphi was able to run out the clock to earn its eighth NE10 Championship and its first since 2017.
The Panthers have earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and will find out their first round opponent on Sunday night during the NCAA selection show, which begins at 8:30 PM.
