Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/9/21
From Press Release
One team was making its 30th appearance in the conference championship game and the other was there for the first time. That difference showed up in the opening minutes of each half and was all the hosts needed to come away with its third straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) women’s lacrosse title Sunday afternoon at Vonnie Gros Field.
West Chester (13-0) remained perfect on the season, riding the stick of freshman Hannah Stanislawczyk (Gov. Mifflin) and the stout defense of tournament most valuable player Molly Reinhart (Wilson), to a 19-8 victory over visiting Seton Hill (13-2).
The Golden Rams earned their conference record 24th conference crown, and third in a row, having won the last two tournaments held in 2018 and 2019. For WCU head coach Ginny Martino it was her 13th title.
West Chester opened the game with six unanswered goals in the first six minutes to put tremendous pressure on Seton Hill. Already leading, 9-5 at the break, the Golden Rams rattled off another six straight to open the second half to blow open a tightly contested and physical match.
Stanislawczyk (4 goals, 2 assists) picked up a pair of goals in each of the six-goal spurts at the beginning of each half. She was exceptional in all areas Sunday, finishing with six points, five draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
At the other end, Reinhart grabbed four ground balls and caused three turnovers, but more importantly, held the Griffins’ PSAC West player of the year Kristi Kada to just one goal on a free position and harassed her into committing four turnovers. In all, Kada managed to fire off only six shots, and just three of those were on cage. Kada entered the game with 50 goals on the season. Together, with her sister Kate, the Boyertown natives accounted for 82 tallies on the year. Sunday, they combined for four.
Seton Hill’s eight goals equaled its lowest output of the year. The Griffins also scored eight in their only other loss of the 2021 campaign against Bloomsburg. Seton Hill committed 20 turnovers in all, and West Chester held a sizeable advantage in ground balls at 21-12.
Following West Chester’s six-goal outburst at the beginning of the game, SHU head coach Courtney Grove called a timeout and rallied the troops. The Griffins held the Golden Rams off the scoreboard for nearly 10 minutes while getting their offense going.
Elizabeth Tamasitis, Alyssa Ference and Kate Kada scored three straight to pull the visitors within three (6-3). The pendulum of momentum was swinging in the direction of the visitors from Western PA.
Grace Frasso (Cinnaminson) and Lindsay Monigle (Cape Henlopen) answered for the Golden Rams.
The Kada sisters scored back-to-back to get the Griffins within three at 8-5. But, that was as close as the visitors could get. Monigle scored with four minutes left in the half to give the hosts a four-goal lead at the break and take much of the wind out of the sails of the Griffins.
When West Chester opened the second half with another six-goal run, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Tatum Altman scored four goals and assisted on two others for the Golden Rams while Monigle and Kelly Baumann each registered hat tricks to fuel West Chester’s scoring on an overcast and cool Mother’s Day afternoon in the Delaware Valley. Julia Rossi (Notre Dame-NJ) scooped up a team-high five ground balls.
West Chester finds out its NCAA fate tonight at 8:30 pm when the field is revealed. The Selection Show can be viewed on NCAA.com. The Golden Rams are expected to be the top seed in the Atlantic Region