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Skidmore headed to UCAA Championship game
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Taryn Howard |
May 3, 2003
GENEVA, N.Y.—Third-seeded Skidmore College advanced to the UCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship game with an 8-4 victory over second-seeded Hamilton College this afternoon. Junior Liza Gorman (Walt Whitman/Bethesda, Md.) led the 18th-ranked Thoroughbreds to the win with three goals.
Skidmore (11-2) opened scoring just 49 seconds into the game, when Gorman raced down the field after the opening draw and netted her 35th goal of the season. The game remained 1-0 until the 15:45 mark when Hamilton’s (7-6) Meghan Blair (Champlain Valley Union/Williston, Vt.) got the Continentals on board with her 30th score on the year.
The Thoroughbreds responded by closing out the half with unanswered goals from Taryn Howard (Littleton/Littleton, N.H.) and Gorman, respectively, taking a 3-1 lead at the break.
Nearly five minutes into the second stanza Skidmore pulled ahead by three on an Annie Ledyard (Lawrenceville/West Grove, Pa.) score. First-year Cate West (Holton Arms School/Bethesda, Md.) would bring the 20th-ranked Continentals back to within two three minutes later, but that would be as close as they would get as the Thoroughbreds rattled off the next three goals on their way to an 8-4 victory.
Senior Molly Plummer (St. Mark’s School/Westwood, Mass.) led Hamilton with two goals and an assist, while sophomore Kate Shea (Saratoga/Greenfield, N.Y.) matched Gorman’s three points with two goals and a helper for Skidmore.
Between the pipes, senior Nicole Cheatle (St. Anne’s-Belfield/Culpeper, Va.) had 10 stops on the afternoon for Hamilton, while first-year Sarah Berheide (Saratoga Springs/Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) went the distance for the Thoroughbreds, pulling in nine saves.
Skidmore will face top-seeded and seventh-ranked William Smith College (13-2) tomorrow in the UCAA Championship on H.J. McCooey Memorial Field at noon. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.