Score: No. 5 Keiser Seahawks 5, No. 3 SCAD Savannah Bees 12
Records: No. 5 Keiser (11-3, 3-1 SUN), No. 3 SCAD Savannah (10-2, 5-0 SUN)
Location: Multi-Purpose Field, West Palm Beach, Fla.
No. 5 Keiser women's lacrosse grabbed an early lead against No. 3 SCAD Savannah on Saturday, but the Bees answered with a five-goal run in the first quarter that Keiser could never fully recover from. Despite a pair of man-up goals that kept the Seahawks within striking distance in the middle quarters, SCAD Savannah pulled away with a dominant fourth to hand Keiser a 12-5 defeat.
Keiser came out with purpose in the early going, with the ball changing hands several times before
Kate Griffin broke through for the game's first goal at 11:49 on a shot that barely broke the line. SCAD Savannah answered just over two minutes later, converting a free position opportunity from Karley Holland at 9:31 to draw even at 1-1. The Bees then turned up the pressure, with Lilah Herold finding the back of the net at 9:14 off an assist from Ellen Benintendi to give SCAD Savannah its first lead. Benintendi added to the margin at 7:05, converting a feed from Annise Berkeley, before Maddie Krohn buried a shot of her own just 11 seconds later at 6:54 to push the Bees to a 4-1 advantage and force Keiser to use a timeout. SCAD Savannah earned another free position opportunity, and while a Benintendi attempt was initially blocked, the Bees kept possession and drew another foul. Benintendi cashed in the second chance at 5:09, making it 5-1. Keiser refused to pack it in and responded with a goal from
Emily McCall at 3:32 to close the gap to 5-2 as the quarter came to a close.
SCAD Savannah came out of the break and immediately extended its lead, with Benintendi finding the net just 23 seconds in at 14:37 to push the margin to 6-2. The Bees generated several more free position attempts, with shots saved by
Raelyn Boutwell before Annise Berkeley finally converted a free position shot at 10:03 to extend the lead to 7-2. Capitalizing on a woman-up advantage, Griffin threw a bouncing shot towards goal to make it 7-3. SCAD would control possession for the remainder of the half, but the score remained 7-3 going into the break.
The third quarter settled into a battle of turnovers and stalled possessions, with both sides struggling to complete clears cleanly. Working another woman-up situation, McCall fed
Tess Geiger, who scored easily at 11:14 to cut the Keiser deficit to 7-4. SCAD Savannah had the final say of the quarter as Benintendi converted off a Berkeley assist with 1:26 remaining to push the lead back to four.
The Bees came out immediately in the fourth, with Benintendi converting another free position shot just over a minute in at 13:48 to extend the lead to 9-4. Keiser responded when
MacKenzie Gibaud earned and converted a free position chance of her own at 11:47, trimming the gap to 9-5. Boutwell came through with back-to-back saves on McKinsey Brown shots, the Bees eventually broke through. Karley Holland scored at 6:51 off Mollie Geiger's assist to push the margin to 10-5, and Lilah Herold added another at 5:20 to make it 11-5. SCAD Savannah closed out their one final woman-up opportunity, with Herold scoring with just 25 seconds left to close the book on a 12-5 final.
Keiser will turn its attention to Tuesday, April 21 when they take on the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans. The opening draw control from the NCF Bayfront Field is set for 3:00 p.m.
- Keiser falls to 11-3 overall and 3-1 in Sun Conference play with the loss
- Griffin led Keiser with two goals on the day
- Gibaud finished with one goal and one assist, extending her goal-scoring streak to 31 games
- McCall scored one goal, added one assist, and led the team with three draw controls
- Geiger rounded out the goal scorers with one for herself
- Milena Isturiz led all players with five caused turnovers
- Griffin and Jia Schweigert tied for the team lead in groundballs with three each
- In goal, Boutwell stopped a career-high 10 shots in the game
- The Seahawks were outshot 33-13 by the Bees
- Keiser was held to less than 10 goals for the first time since 2024
No. 5 Keiser
Points: Gibaud/Griffin/McCall (2)
Goals: Griffin (2)
Assists: Ferris/Gibaud/McCall (1)
Draw Controls: McCall (3)
Ground Balls: Griffin/McCall (3)
Caused Turnovers: Isturiz (5)
Saves: Boutwell (10)
No. 3 SCAD
Points: Benintendi (7)
Goals: Benintendi (5)
Assists: Benintendi/Berkeley (2)
Draw Controls: Krohn (4)
Ground Balls: Hahn (4)
Caused Turnovers: Hahn (3)
Saves: Zundel (3)
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