Pictured Above: Sophomore
Madeline Seims (photo by Bob Park)
Box Score
2019 NEC Tournament Headquarters
Emmitsburg, MD – Trailing 8-7 at the midway point, the Wagner College women's lacrosse team used a strong second half to advance to its sixth consecutive Northeast Conference (NEC) championship game, as the #2-seeded Seahawks earned a 14-13 victory over #3 Robert Morris on Thursday at Waldron Family Stadium on the campus of Mount St. Mary's University.
Today's game marked the fourth straight season that the Seahawks have defeated the Colonials in the NEC semifinals.
Wagner will now face top-seeded and host, Mount St. Mary's in the NEC title game on Saturday, May 4 at 12:00 p.m. In today's other semifinal, the Mountaineers ran past No. 4-seeded Bryant 18-4. Saturday's matchup will mark the first time the Green & White will face an opponent other than Bryant in the championship game, as the Seahawks and Bulldogs have met in each of the last five NEC title contests, with Wagner claiming wins in 2016 and 2018.
The Seahawks were powered by sophomore
Madeline Seims, who scored a team-high six goals, including four scores in the second half alone, while junior
Stephanie Falcone and senior
Megan Drum tallied two goals apiece.
With her six scores today, which included 4-of-4 accuracy on free-position shots, Seims tied former Wagner great Heather George for most goals in a single season with 59.
After goals by NEC Midfielder of the Year
Erin Kerstetter, Seims, and Falcone gave Wagner a 3-0 advantage just three minutes into the contest, the Colonials answered with five consecutive goals and led by as much as 8-5 at the 3:24 mark in the first half.
Wagner closed out the first half with an important 2-0 run on goals by senior
Stephanie Roberts and Seims, who then tied the game at 8-8 just 95 seconds into the second half.
Both teams traded goals until back-to-back goals by Drum made it 12-10 in favor of Wagner with 11:49 to go, giving the Seahawks their first two-goal advantage since the opening minutes of the game.
Freshman
Maria Henwood extended the lead to 13-10, while Seims added the final Wagner goal of the game with 6:29 to play.
The Colonials pulled within one in the final minutes of the game, but the Seahawk defense stood tall, as First Teamm All-NEC selection
Maddie Courtney forced a crucial turnover with under three minutes to play in keeping the Colonials off the board.
Fellow first Team All-NEC defender
Maggie Jent led the Seahawks with four caused turnovers throughout the contest, while Courtney and sophomore
Noelle Harvey paced Wagner with five ground balls apiece.
Drum led Wagner with 8 draw controls, while Kerstetter added to her record-setting season with seven draw controls.
As a team, Wagner out-shot Robert Morris 34-26, while redshirt senior goal
Kelsey Fee earned the victory in goal while recording seven saves.
NOTE: In improving their season record to 14-3, the Seahawks tie the program record set last year when the 2018 NEC Champions finished with a final record of 14-6.
