April 7, 2010
Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's lacrosse team received hat tricks from five different players and used a 4-1 run over the final 19-plus minutes to stave off a feisty American squad in a 15-14 victory on Wednesday evening at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
With the win, Navy improves to 13-2 overall, matching a program record for victories, and keeping its perfect conference record in tact at a program-best 4-0. The victory also secures a Patriot League Tournament berth for the Mids, their third in three seasons.
The visiting Eagles, who came into today's contest in second place in the Patriot League standings, fall to 5-8 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
Freshman Kathy Young (Berwyn, Pa.) had three goals and two assists to pace the Mids, while senior team captain Erin Rawlick (Forest Hill, Md.) and junior Caitlin Mandrin Hill (Annapolis, Md.) contributed four points on three goals and one assist apiece.
Junior Katrina Nietsch (New Canaan, Conn.) and sophomore Danielle Vivonetto (Rocky Point, N.Y.) both had a pair of second-half tallies and each finished with three goals to their credit.
"I really credit American for coming in here and making it awfully difficult for us today," said Navy head coach Cindy Timchal, who picked up her NCAA-best 375th career victory with the win. "They give 100 percent and really go all-out, all-the-time. We struggled for much of the game today, but we found a way to win in the end. I am proud of our kids, they really toughed this one out."
The two teams combined for 21 goals over a frenetic first 30 minutes, with American taking an 11-10 lead into the break.
The Mids took an early 3-1 lead in the contest's first 4:01 on goals from Rawlick, Young and Mandrin Hill. American would answer back with four unanswered goals over the next 3:56, bookended by a pair of scores from senior Amanda Makoid.
Navy would regroup after calling a timeout and quickly evened things up at 5-5 with 19:51 on the clock, thanks to back-to-back goals from Rawlick and Young, just 11 seconds apart. Nietsch and Mandrin Hill then added scores to restore the Mids' two-goal advantage at 7-5.
Not to be outdone, the Eagles answered the Navy spurt by once again reeling off four unanswered, this time over a three-minute, 34-second stretch to take a 9-7 lead with 11:57 left in the period. The Mids responded with three of the next four goals and drew even at 10-10 on an unassisted Rawlick goal with 4:26 remaining, but a late Navy turnover wound up resulting in a quick-stick goal from sophomore Lauren Schoenberger with 2:35 on the clock.
Despite holding a 26-13 advantage in shots, for the second-straight contest the Mids would trail at the half. Navy struggled against American's offensive sets, as well as in the cage, a combination which allowed the Eagles to score 11 goals on its 13 first-half shots (and 14 times on 17 shots on the evening).
The pace would settle down considerably over the final 30 minutes. After controlling the opening draw, the Mids displayed tremendous patience on their first possession and eventually scored to tie the game at 11-11 on a Kathy Young dodge to the cage at the 27:18 mark.
A few costly turnovers opened the door for American to reclaim the lead on back-to-back goals from Schoenberger at the 19:59 and the 19:03 mark, respectively.
Trailing 13-11 and with the contest's momentum beginning to take on a red tint, Navy started to clamp down defensively, take care of the ball and finally began to dictate the play at a more controlled pace.
At 15:58, Nietsch would bring the Mids to within one goal on a dodge from the top of the arc. The fleet-footed junior would net her third goal of the day at 13:11 to tie the game for the seventh and final time.
Freshman Grace Bojanowski (Baltimore, Md.), who split time in both halves with sophomore goalie Elaina Ponchione (Silver Spring, Md.), would come up huge, registering Navy's first and only save of the contest with 12:56 remaining.
The Mids made the most of that possession as a Vivonetto dodge from behind the cage put Navy ahead for good at 14-13 at the 10:46 mark. After controlling the ensuing draw control, Navy wisely began killing some clock before the Long Island native netted her 50th goal of the year with 7:46 remaining. Vivonetto made an athletic play, leaping to grab Kathy Young's feed in traffic at the front of the goalmouth and snuck the ball behind American netiminder Frankie Solomon for what stood to be the game-winner.
The Eagles would turn the ball over several times late and Navy, leading 15-13, did a strong job of running time off the clock.
A late turnover by the Mids, however, would allow American to end a 18:56 scoring drought and cut the deficit to one goal with 13 seconds left to play. Navy would control the final draw to thwart any chance for last-second heroics from the visitors and secure the program's third-consecutive postseason tournament berth.
Navy outshot American, 38-17, and won the ground ball (16-10) and draw control categories (16-10). American committed 22 turnovers to the Mids' 17.
Bojanowski played 29-plus minutes, earning her first career win for the Mids. Solomon came up with 10 saves for the Eagles.
The Navy women will be off until next Saturday, April 17 when they head to Bethlehem, Pa. to take on Lehigh in yet another contest which is sure to have important postseason playoff implications. On its way to advancing to last year's league final, the Mids avenged a regular-season home loss to the Mountain Hawks with a thrilling 12-11 semifinal victory.
Noteworthy:
*Navy has won three of its four meetings with American. All four contests have been decided by two or fewer goals.
*Erin Rawlick finished with a game-high six draw controls to her credit. She entered the week fourth nationally in the category. She has also now scored a goal in each of Navy's first 50 games - the sixth-longest goals scoring streak in NCAA history.
*The Mids have won back-to-back games when trailing at the half.
*Navy is now 10-1 at home this spring. The Mids have won 12 of their last 13 games in Annapolis and boast a 28-4 all-time home record (.875).
## Go Navy! ##
