NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Trine University women's lacrosse team played in their first Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Tournament Championship game on Saturday against Saint Mary's College, the number two seed going into postseason play. The Thunder ultimately ran out of steam late, resulting in a 19-15 loss.
Despite the runner-up finish in the conference tournament, Trine still put together the best season in program history with an 11-5 record, the most victories in a single season ever. The Thunder also saw a variety of career, single season and game records go down throughout the year and head coach Kevin Cooke has made a strong impact in his first season at the helm of the program.
The Saint Mary's College Belles have received the MIAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and Trine awaits the results of Monday's Selection Show to see if they will get an at-large bid to the event.
First half action looked promising for the Thunder as they battled back from being down two with back-to-back goals by Liv Ghent [Byron Center, Mich. / Caledonia]. Calista Richmond [Portage, Mich. / Portage] added to her outstanding assist total this season by finding Ghent on both. Danielle Gargiulo [Downers Grove, Ill. / Downers Grove] rattled off four in a row to make it a 7-6 Saint Mary's game after one period.
The second would be much more low scoring as the defense of Josie Prince [St. Charles, Mo. / Francis Howell Central], Taylor Dudley [Maumee, Ohio / Notre Dame Academy], Madison Howard [Stockbridge, Mich. / Stockbridge] and Brooklyn Sosinsky [Carmel, Ind. / Carmel] along with goalie Jillian Rejczyk [Wauconda, Ill. / Wauconda] confined the Belles to just one goal in the frame while the offense found the back of the net three times.
Gargiulo and Ghent each added to their offensive totals with scores midway through the second and Courtney Rhodes [Monee, Ill. / Providence Catholic] put her name on the scoresheet by firing a shot passed the opposing goalie with 4:49 left to go up 9-8 at the half.
The third quarter would be where the game took a turn for the worst for the Thunder. Saint Mary's put up eight in a row and kept Trine off the board in the third to claim a commanding 16-9 advantage.
With 12 minutes remaining, the lead grew to as many as nine at 19-10, but the Thunder would not surrender without a fight. Trine owned the final 12 minutes of the game and put five in the back of the net. Richmond scored for the first time in the game when up a man while Alyssa Keptner [Midland, Mich. / H.H. Dow] and Brooke Hoag [Portage, Mich. / Portage] tacked on goals as well.
At the three-minute mark, Richmond found Ghent for the final goal that made it 19-15 Belles, but there was just not enough time to complete the comeback fully.
Ghent scored six of the team's 15 goals to lead the way on offense while Richmond dished out a team-high seven assists. Gargiulo brought in six draw controls to lead the Thunder, a category that was fairly even throughout the night at 20-18 Saint Mary's. In net, Rejczyk made 16 saves, a season-high. Maddy Kasten [Battle Creek, Mich. / Lakeview] was called upon late and made one save out of the two shots she faced in the final 12 minutes.
