Box Score The first semifinal of the day featured the Lady Bees of Savannah College of Art and Design, and the Lady Warriors of Indiana Tech. These teams faced off against one another in the past two NWLL National Championship games, with SCAD picking up an 18-17 three overtime victory in 2012, and a 19-12 victory last season. This year's matchup was filled with four lead changes and it would be the Lady Bees once again coming out on top 13-12.
The Lady Bees jumped out to an early lead after picking up two goals within the first five minutes of play.
Charlotte Walters got the Lady Bees on the board after a nice setup pass from
Charlotte Cutts. Just over three minutes later Cutts found the back of the net for her first goal of the game to extend the lead to two.
The Lady Warriors came right back with a pair of goals to tie the game at two. Kendall Guthrie picked up both goals for the Lady Warriors. SCAD took their second lead at 3-2 after a
Torii Clark goal.
Just over three minutes later the Lady Warriors tied the game at 3-3 when Autumn McMillin tallied her first goal. With 15:40 left in the half the Lady Warriors took its first lead at 4-3 after Aubri Hazen found the back of the net. It was a different position for SCAD to be behind in a game and they wasted no time when
Kayla Nelson,
Haley Fauvelle, and
Sophie Cutts scored three straight goals to once again take a 2-goal advantage at 6-4.
The Lady Warriors picked up the final goal of the half with 39 seconds left, and the Lady Bees took a 6-5 lead at the break. The second half was shaping up to be another back and forth game for these two championship caliber teams.
The second half picked up with a flurry from Indiana Tech. The Lady Warriors picked up three straight goals to race out to a two goal lead at 8-6; however, SCAD answered right back with another 3-goal flurry of its won to take back the advantage at 9-8. Nelson picked up consecutive goals for the defending champions to tie the game at eight.
Charlotte Cutts then scored the go-ahead goal with an assist from Nelson.
As would be the trend of the game for both teams Indiana Tech tied the game up at 9-9 just less than three minutes later. SCAD's Nelson once again answered for the Lady Bees to reclaim the lead at 10-9, but less than a minute later Indiana Tech found the back of the net to tie the game at 10.
For the third time in the game it was SCAD picking up three unanswered goals to extend their lead to 13-10. Nelson started the run with a goal with 6:33 remaining in the game.
Jordan Cook scored ended the run with back-to-back goals to give the Lady Bees a 3-goal lead with less than 2-minutes left in the contest. At this time it looked as if SCAD had the game in hand. But that would not be the case.
With less than two minutes o play, McMillin tallied her third goal of the game to bring the Lady Warriors to within two at 13-11. When Indiana Tech's Aubri Hazen followed with another goal just 26 seconds later to cut the deficit to one the crowd was anticipating another comeback in the final minute, but the Lady Bees used good ball control in the final 60 seconds to preserve their victory. The Lady Bees could finally celebrate with a 13-12 victory and another trip to the NWLL National Championship title game.
For SCAD, Nelson led the team with 5 goals on 12 shots, two assists, and 6 ground balls.
Charlotte Cutts finished with 2 goals and 2 assists.
Jordan Cook chipped in 2 goals on 3 shots.
Sophie Cutts, Fauvelle, Walters, and Clark each finished with 1 goal. Goalkeeper,
Jenny Danko, picked up the win in net for the Lady Bees after stopping 8 shots.
The victory would mark the continuation of a 15-game winning streak without a loss for the Lady Bees and its third straight national title game. SCAD will now take on ranked Robert Morris University-Chicago (RMU-Chicago) Saturday. The championship game will feature a battle of nationally ranked teams - SCAD at No. 1 and RMU-Chicago at No. 3. Game time is set for 5:30 pm. Go Bees!
