SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Tied at 11-all just over midway through the fourth quarter, No. 6 Benedictine Women's Lacrosse scored three unanswered en route to an upset win over No. 3 University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) 14-11 on Wednesday in the NAIA National Championship Quarterfinals.
Natalie Wechter scored three straight goals in the final three minutes of the game on assists from Aiden McEnerney, Clare Ryan, and Erica Odell to push the Ravens back in front of the Patriots for good.
The Ravens struck first on an unassisted goal by McEnerney 17 seconds into the game. The Patriots answered with a goal from Katie Wharton before the Ravens answered that goal by scoring 5 of the next 7 goals of the game to take a 6-2 lead after one quarter.
The Ravens finished the first 15 minutes with a 15-8 advantage in shots while winning 8 draw controls. The second quarter would tell a different story as the Patriots won 5 draw controls and outshot the Ravens 13-4 to score 5 straight and take a 7-6 lead into halftime.
McEnerney tied the game at 7-7 early in the third quarter before back-to-back goals gave the Patriots the lead again midway through the third quarter. Rianna England, Elizabeth Conley, and Wechter combined to score three straight to give Benedictine a 10-9 lead with just 15 minutes remaining in the game.
After opening up the fourth quarter trading goals, Benedictine held Cumberlands scoreless over the final 9 minutes of the game to set up the fourth-quarter hat trick from Wechter.
The third Quarterfinal of the Championship featured two of the NAIA top scorers in Wechter, who entered the game ranked third, and Cumberlands Bella Ricchiazzi, who entered ranked second. Ricchiazzi did score her 100th goal of the season but was limited to just 2 goals in the first half by the Ravens defense.
Gianna Stalletti finished the game with 9 saves and she recorded 3 saves in the fourth quarter. Benedictine finished with a 33-26 advantage in shots and a 19-9 advantage in draw controls as they won 10 in the second half while limiting Cumberlands to 3.
Wechter finished the game with 5 goals. McEnerney added 4 goals and 1 assist while Marguex Gelbach, Grace Simonson, and Odell joined Conley and England with one goal each. Odell finished with 2 assists while Ryan, Simonson, Conley, and England added 1 each.
Benedictine returns to action at 6 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday as they take on SCAD-Savannah. SCAD, the No. 7-seeded team in the tournament who knocked off the defending NAIA champion Kaiser, 13-11, on Wednesday in the final Quarterfinal. The meeting is a rematch of the 2019 NAIA National Invitational Championship game where SCAD beat Benedictine 18-12 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
#UnleashGreatness
