ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's lacrosse team outlasted Saint Mary's College on Wednesday night 14-13 in overtime. The Thunder are no strangers with the extra period, as this was their third game this season to require extra time. The team has locked themselves into a playoff spot in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) postseason tournament.
Trine moves to 10-3 overall and 5-1 in MIAA action following the victory. Saint Mary's falls to 8-6 overall and 4-2 in league play. The Thunder will play for the regular season title in their next game at Albion College after they lost to Calvin University this evening. A loss would drop them into a potential three-way tie with Hope and Saint Mary's should they win their games on Saturday.
After a Belles goal less than one minute into the game, Trine rattled off three in a row. Calista Richmond [Portage, Mich. / Portage] found Liv Ghent [Byron Center, Mich. / Caledonia] for the team's first and third goals of the game while Danielle Gargiulo [Downers Grove, Ill. / Downers Grove] found the back of the net herself at the 9:49 mark. Saint Mary's would do the same to bring the score to 4-3 after one quarter.
The Belles would outscore the Thunder by one again in the second period. Brooke Hoag [Portage, Mich. / Portage] netted the first goal of the quarter while the deadly combination of Richmond and Ghent found success again with two minutes and change remaining.
The third quarter was the heaviest scoring of the game. Trine took a one-goal lead after winning the period 7-4. Richmond made passes to Gargiulo and Hoag to put two on the board and Alyssa Keptner [Midland, Mich. / H.H. Dow] got a point when she assisted Ghent on her fourth score of the game. Up a man, Richmond scored unassisted to knot the game up at 9 with less than five minutes left in the third. Ghent, Hoag and Gargiulo would add to their totals with goals in the final three minutes.
Contrast to the third, the fourth only saw three scores. Saint Mary's tied the game at 12 with a score at 13:30. Keptner recorded a turnover and found Richmond in transition to reclaim the advantage at 13-12, but the Belles came right back and evened it up at 13 with 3:20 remaining.
In the overtime period, Richmond was once again the catalyst of the action when she targeted Hoag just in front of the net for the game-winning goal just before the halfway point in the extra time. It was Hoag's second game-sealing overtime goal of the season.
Richmond has accumulated seven or more assists in the last three games after distributing seven more tonight. She also had two goals for a team-high nine points. Ghent tallied a team-high five goals while Hoag had four, including the game-winner. The senior Ghent also had five groundballs, five draw controls and three caused turnovers.
The goalie Jillian Rejczyk [Wauconda, Ill. / Wauconda] collected her eighth win of the year, had six groundballs and 14 saves. Her 14 saves is the second-most in a game this season.
Up next, Trine will travel to Albion to face the Britons on Saturday, April 30 at 5 pm.
