SAVANNAH, Ga. – The No. 2 seeded Benedictine Women's Lacrosse team jumped out to a 5-0 lead on No. 7 seed Life University on Wednesday en route to a win in the Quarterfinals of the 2025 NAIA Women's Lacrosse National Championship.
In a very balanced statistical game, the strong first quarter led to a 12-9 win for the Ravens to advance the program to the national semifinals for the first time since 2022.
Benedictine finished with a 30-27 advantage in shots and 3 more ground balls (22-19) while each team recorded 16 caused turnovers.
Like most of the Ravens previous games, the first five goals came from four players. Chanterra Allen scored the game's first goal with 7:14 remaining in the first quarter. Alexa Hildenbrand scored 13 seconds later before Kiera Russell and Kaylen Moore made it 4-0 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the quarter. Hildenbrand capped off the scoring run to make it 5-0, headed to the second quarter.
Life's best offensive quarter came in the second quarter as they outscored Benedictine 5-2 to send the game into halftime with Benedictine leading 7-5.
Leading 7-6 and the offensive momentum starting to swing in favor of the Running Eagles, the Ravens scored four straight over 8 minutes to take control of the game 11-6, headed to the fourth quarter. Three more Ravens notched a goal for the team in the third quarter, as Mackenna Hill got the run started. Margaux Gelbach scored the second goal before Lorelei Siegel scored two straight.
Life added 3 goals in the fourth quarter but couldn't pull any closer than 3 goals before Moore scored her second of the game.
Six Ravens finished with a goal as Moore, Allen, Russell, Siegel, and Hildenbrand scored 2 each, with Hill adding one. Moore finished with 4 assists, while Russell, Hildenbrand, and Hill were joined by Ava Moore with 1 assist each.
Benedictine finished with 16 caused turnovers, led by Moore with 5, while Sloane Poindexter added 4. As a team, the Ravens finished with 13 draw controls to push their season total to 431, breaking the NAIA record of 428 set by Cumberlands (Ky.) in 2024.
Molly Owen went the distance in goal, finishing with 9 saves.
The Ravens advance to the Semifinals on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET (5 p.m. CT) back at Memorial Stadium in Savannah.
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