SCHENECTADY, N.Y.The 13th-ranked William Smith lacrosse team fell into a 7-0 hole in the first half of its Liberty League Tournament Semifinal game against No. 9 Hamilton at Frank Bailey Field this afternoon. The Herons rallied late in the first half, but ultimately fell short, dropping a 14-8 decision to the Continentals.
Hamilton (13-2) had decisive edges in shots (35-16) and ground balls (27-17). William Smith (11-4) won nearly twice as many draws (15-9), but committed nearly twice as many turnovers (28-15).
Liz Rave (4g) needed just 69 seconds to get defending national champion Hamilton on the board, sparking the run. Anne Gravely netted all three of her goals in the contest during the surge, while Kaille Briscoe (2g, 1a) capped it off at 7:24.
Sophomore
Kara Grogan (2g) broke up the shutout on a free position shot with 7:00 left in the first half. The score energized the Heron offense, which rallied for four more goals before the end of the half. Junior
Sarah Goodkind (1g, 1a) connected on another free position shot less than two minutes later and set up classmate
Molly Fitzgerald's (2g) strike 21 seconds after that. Grogan scored again, set up by first-year
Rosie Scheibel, at the 1:01 mark, then Scheibel (2g, 1a) finished a
Brittany Callaghan (1a) pass to make the score 7-5 heading into halftime.
Rave and Briscoe scored back-to-back to start the second half, effectively squashing William Smith's comeback hopes. Fitzgerald tallied her team-leading 42nd goal of season to make it 9-6 with 22:02 to go, but Hamilton responded with five of the next six goals to secure the victory.
Senior goalie
Becky Josefiak made 11 saves for the Herons, while Kate Fowler stopped six for the Continentals. William Smith senior defender
Torie Allen shared game-high honors in ground balls (4), draw controls (3), and caused turnovers (3).
Hamilton advances to the Liberty League Championship game to face top-seeded Union, a 16-7 winner over Rochester in the other semifinal. William Smith will have to await the NCAA Selection Show, May 3 at 10 p.m. on CBS College Sports Network, to find out if they will be one of the 26 teams vying for the national championship.