LAURINBURG, N.C.— No. 4 seed St. Andrews Presbyterian College defeated No. 5 seed Queens University of Charlotte in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Conference Carolinas Women’s Lacrosse Tournament on Wednesday afternoon at the Knights Lacrosse Field by a score of 15-11.
Freshman Shannon Casey (Bel Air, Md., John Carroll) led the Royals offensively with a hat trick. Junior Kelley Duffey (New Hope, Minn. , Robinsdale Cooper ), who enters the week ranked third nationally in assists per game, dished out a team-high four assists. Queens lost to St. Andrews for the third time this year, having its season ended at 5-13.
Senior Kelsey Binggeli (Newark, N.Y.) registered a game-high seven points and senior Kerrie Brown (Irondequoit, N.Y.) scored a game-high six goals, helping the Lady Knights advance to the semifinals for the second straight year. SAPC will carry an 11-7 overall record into Saturday’s semifinal game against No. 1 seed and host Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C., starting at 11:30 a.m.
SAPC held a slim 29-27 shot edge but QUC had more ground balls, 19-15, and draw controls, 15-13. Senior goalkeeper Eryn McCaffrey (Cicero, N.Y.) had a game-high 12 saves for the Knights while junior counterpart Rebecca Markle (Hampstead, Md., North Carroll ) (Hampstead, Md.) made nine stops for the visitors.
Knights’ freshman Cara Manas (Harwood, Md.) scored the first goal of the game at the 27:20 mark of the first half and St. Andrews maintained a lead for the rest of the contest.
St. Andrews held an 8-5 lead at halftime before Queens inched to within two goals a trio of times in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Knights finally put away the Royals with a four-goal run midway through the second stanza that was capped by a Binggeli goal that gave St. Andrews its largest lead of six, 14-8. Queens closed the final deficit to four goals but McCaffrey made seven of her 12 saves in the final 30 minutes to preserve the victory.
Freshman Brittany Philip (Painted Post, N.Y., East), senior Kelly Wrightson (Germantown, Md., Damascus ), and sophomore Alyssa Hughes (Damascus, Md. , Damascus ) all found the back of the cage two times for the Royals. Senior Carolyn Parsons (Glen Burnie, Md., Glen Burnie ) tallied one goal and one assist; sophomore Caitlin O'Rourke ( Winter Springs, Fla., Winter Springs ) added two assists; and senior Brittany Weller ( Fallston, Md., Fallston ) chipped in with one goal.
The sophomore duo of Alexis Goldman (Winter Park, Fla.) and Kim McDaniel (Joppa, Md.) both had one goal and one assist for the Knights while Manas finished with two goals. St. Andrews also received goals off the sticks of senior Courtney Ross (Newark, N.Y.) and senior Katie Wright (Waterloo, N.Y.). McDaniel added a game-high five draw controls.