SAVANNAH, Ga. – The No. 4 SCAD women's lacrosse team defeated No. 5 Indiana Tech in the opening round of the 2024 NAIA Women's Lacrosse National Championship on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals.
RECORDS: The Bees are now 14-5, while the Warriors end the season with a 13-5 record.
HOW IT HAPPENED: SCAD opened the scoring early in the second game of the day as
Clarke Haas found the back of the net after only a minute and 15 seconds of play for her 75th goal of the season.
Indiana Tech answered, tying the game at 1-1 after just four minutes of play. However, the Bees found their rhythm quickly, going up 4-1 after three minutes of game time rolled off the clock.
The Warriors' defense locked down after three unanswered goals. With five minutes to play in the opening quarter, the Bees outshot Indiana Tech 8-3 and 7-2 with shots on goal.
SCAD earned another free position shot, which
Keagan Plume capitalized on, pushing their lead to four with her 23rd goal of the season. At the 4:24 mark, the Warriors answered with one final goal of the first quarter to bring the score to 5-2 heading into the second.
The Bees outscored the Warriors 2-1 in the second quarter, with both goals coming from
Clarke Haas, her 76
th and 77
th goals of the season to go into halftime up 7-3.
Both teams came back to the turf to start the third quarter on fire. The Bees struck first, pushing their lead to 8-3, but the five-point margin was short-lived. Three minutes later, the Warriors scored one of their own to cut the lead to four (8-4).
SCAD then scored two goals just a minute and nine seconds apart to extend their lead to six, 10-4, with 6:41 to play in the third quarter. Three more Bees' goals in the third put the game out of reach of Indiana Tech as SCAD went up 13-4 heading into the final quarter.
Ainsley Jones's goal, followed by one from
Annise Berkeley in the fourth quarter, clinched the Bees' 15-4 win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: SCAD had a strong showing to open their tournament run, dominating Indiana Tech in shots (46-15), shots on goal (37-7), draw controls (16-7), near-perfect on free position shots (7-of-11) and a perfect 18-for-18 on clears.
Clarke Haas led the offensive charge with seven goals and seven points, while
Annise Berkeley,
Keagan Plume, and
Emma Roch each scored three goals. Plume added an assist for three points, while
Ainsley Jones and
MaryGrace Gordon each scored one goal.
Clarke Haas,
Emma Roch, and
Grace Gibson each caused two turnovers, while goalie
Lorna Fowles made three saves in 50 minutes of work.
Keagan Plume totaled six draw controls, while
Annise Berkeley had five, and
Clarke Haas and
Emma Roch had three and two, respectively.
RECORDS BROKEN: Clarke Haas's first goal of the game broke the single-season goals record and career goals record.
Grace Gibson's first caused turnover broke the program record for caused turnovers for a season.
WHAT'S NEXT? The Bees will play tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST against the top-seeded Eagles of Reinhardt.
