Collegiate women: Holy Family goes from 0-16 to playoff team in one year

Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/19/10
From Press Releases

A season after going 0-16 in its program debut, the Holy Family University women’s lacrosse team is headed to the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship Tournament after defeating Chestnut Hill College, 16-10, on Sunday afternoon at Tiger Field.

The Tigers improved their overall record to 8-6 under first year head coach Sarah Lautenbach. In the CACC, Holy Family is 7-4. The team will be either the second or third seed when the tournament begins on Saturday, May 1 at Georgian Court College.

Attack Gina Mansi led the Tiger offense in the victory with six points (five goals, one assist). Midfielder Stephanie McNesby (Archbishop Ryan) and attack Jennifer James (Little Flower) both had five-point days. McNesby netted five goals, while James had four goals and one assist. Midfielder Katherine Podlinski recorded two goals.

In goal, the Tigers Melissa Jenkins (Interboro) came up with seven stops.

Chestnut Hill (4-10, 3-7 CACC) got seven points (six goals, one assist) from attack Maryanne Glass. Attack Carley Glass recorded two goals and two assists.

Holy Family outshot Chestnut Hill, 27-24. The Tigers dominated the draw controls, 20-7. Defender Jessica Maloney (Archbishop Ryan) won five for the Tigers, a game-high.

Mansi single-handedly put Holy Family up 2-0 with a pair of unassisted goals in the first 95 seconds. The teams traded goals until McNesby and James scored back-to-back goals to give the Tigers a 6-3 lead with 8:46 left in the first half. The Griffins closed out the half with three of the final four goals to close the gap to 7-6 at the intermission.

Maryanne Glass scored consecutive goals, countering a McNesby score to open the second half, to knot the game at eight with 19:11 remaining.

The Tigers offense broke the game open, scoring seven of the next eight goals, to take a 15-9 lead with 3:47 to play. During the 7-1 run, Podlinski, Mansi and James all scored twice, while McNesby added the other tally. James ended the score with a free-position goal with 2:05 to go to produce the final margin.

Holy Family closes out the regular season with a home CACC contest against Philadelphia University on Saturday, April 24 at noon.