Score: No. 5 Keiser Seahawks 18, No. 6 Ave Maria Gyrenes 6
Records: No. 5 Keiser (14-3), No. 6 Ave Maria (11-6)
Location: Multi-Purpose Field, West Palm Beach, Fla.
No. 5 Keiser women's lacrosse erupted for six first-quarter goals and never looked back on their way to a dominant 18-6 victory in the Sun Conference Semifinal. With the win, Keiser punches its ticket to the conference championship for the eighth time in program history.
Just over a minute into the game,
Jia Schweigert buried the first goal of the afternoon to put Keiser on the board. The Seahawks carried that momentum without pause, as
Milena Isturiz followed less than two minutes later, spinning and firing to push the lead to 2-0. After
Raelyn Boutwell stopped a free position attempt from Sophie Paige and then turned away a shot from Angelina Diesslin, the Seahawks pushed right back. Isturiz picked up a ground ball inside and cashed in again off an assist from
Baylee Walker, making it 3-0 at the 8:24 mark. Keiser kept its foot on the gas. Following another draw control win from
Kate Griffin, the Seahawks were back on the attack.
MacKenzie Gibaud found Walker cutting in for the fourth goal of the game and the Gyrenes called timeout. Following a yellow card on AMU, Keiser capitalized on the ensuing woman-up situation when Gibaud found the net off a feed from Griffin to make it 5-0 at the 2:53 mark. Ave Maria got one back in the closing minute, but the Seahawks answered almost immediately as
Isabelle Vrensen scored on a free position attempt to close out the quarter 6-0.
An early free position attempt by the Gyrenes was converted to cut the deficit to four at 6-2. Keiser's transition attack worked beautifully at the 11-minute mark as Gibaud forced the turnover, worked it forward to Vrensen, who drew two defenders before dropping it off to an open
Emily Ferris for the goal. Vrensen played another great pass later in the quarter to Griffin who was denied on her first attempt but collected her miss and scored to make it 8-2. Keiser would then close the second quarter with three goals in the final 56 seconds. The SUN Freshman of the Year,
Tess Geiger, started it with a drive and score with 56 seconds left. Then it was Ferris who found
Reese Lynch who fired in her first of the day with 18 still to play in the half. With time winding down, Ferris hit Gibaud, who scored with three seconds remaining to make it 11-2 going into the break.
Keiser picked up right where it left off, with Vrensen taking it herself and scoring at the 12:19 mark to extend the lead to ten. The Gyrenes went on to catch fire with four goals in five minutes to make things suddenly interesting. Fifield converted free position shots at 9:21 and 8:32, and then Paige rifled in a shot at 7:53. Keiser called timeout and made a goaltending change, bringing
Samantha Crowther in to replace Boutwell. Before Keiser could answer, Maura Barnes added another off an Angelina Diesslin assist at 7:10, pulling Ave Maria to within six at 12-6. The Gyrenes had another crack but Crowther turned away the Dhabliwala attempt. Following a forced turnover by Walker, Geiger fed Ferris who stopped the run at 3:46. Walker then added a goal of her own after a perfect feed from Vrensen at the 1:26 mark. Geiger finished the quarter with a rocket of a shot that went top-shelf from 8 meters out to push the lead back to 15-6 heading into the fourth.
Keiser came out and controlled early possession in the fourth. Crowther denied Dhabliwala on a free position shot early, and the Seahawks went the other way when Isturiz circled the net and scored at the 12:36 mark to push the lead to 16-6. A yellow card on Ave Maria's Barnes gave the Seahawks a woman-up advantage, and Ferris delivered again, burying a man-up goal off a Geiger assist at the 7:55 mark for 17-6 and triggering another Ave Maria timeout.
Emily Pond came on in goal at the 7:24 mark for Keiser, seeing action in the closing stretch. A pair of Keiser fouls gave Ave Maria several late opportunities that Pond and the Seahawk defense turned away, including a Pond save off a Hynds free position shot. A yellow card on Dhabliwala late gave Keiser one final man-up, and Isturiz capitalized with a free position goal at the 1:31 mark to set the final at 18-6.
Keiser advances to the Sun Conference Tournament Championship tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. to face No. 3 SCAD at the Multi-Purpose Field in West Palm Beach, Fla.
- Keiser improves to 14-3 on the season
- The Seahawks are now 3-3 all-time in the Sun Conference Tournament and 8-1 all-time in conference tournament semifinal games (3-0 MSC)
- Saturday marks the eighth time that the Seahawks will play in a conference championship game
- Ferris led the Keiser offense with three goals and two assists on the day
- Isturiz led all scorers with four goals while Ferris, Geiger, and Vrensen all had two assists
- Geiger, Gibaud, Vrensen, and Walker all had two goals on the day
- Keiser outshot Ave Maria 31-17 and held a 29-17 edge in shots on goal
- The Seahawks have now scored at least 18 goals in 10 games this season
- Griffin had one goal and one assist while leading the team with five draw controls
- With her second draw control of the day, she became just the second player in program history to record 100 draw controls in a season
- Lizzie Belton, Geiger, Isturiz, and Brooklyn Kollar were all active on defense with each recording a pair of caused turnovers
- Not only leading in goals, Isturiz also led the team with three groundballs today
- Boutwell got the win in net with five saves, followed by Crowther who made three stops, and Pond who also recorded a save
- The goalies recorded six saves total and tied for the fourth-best save percentage this season at 60%
- After scoring a combined 12 of the Gyrenes' 19 goals in the quarterfinals, Hynds and Dhabliwala were held without a goal on Friday
- Hynds managed just one point on an assist while Dhabliwala was held to two shots and was denied each time
- With the win, Keiser will play SCAD in the Sun Conference Tournament Championship for the third time in program history
- SCAD advanced to the final with a 17-2 win over Life on Friday night
- The Bees have won both meetings in the championship game by a combined score of just four goals
- Keiser will look to win for the first time at home against SCAD in their series' history
No. 5 Keiser
Points: Ferris (5)
Goals: Isturiz (4)
Assists: Ferris/Geiger/Vrensen (2)
Draw Controls: Griffin (5)
Ground Balls: Isturiz (3)
Caused Turnovers: Belton/Geiger/Isturiz/Kollar (2)
Saves: Boutwell (5)
No. 6 Ave Maria
Points: Fifield (3)
Goals: Fifield (3)
Assists: Diesslin/Hynds (1)
Draw Controls: Dhabliwala (7)
Ground Balls: Coyle/Fifield/Hicks (2)
Caused Turnovers: Coyle (3)
Saves: Pieniadz (11)
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