Women’s Lax Gets Past Rochester, Will Host RPI on Tuesday

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Union College women’s lacrosse team outscored the University of Rochester by a 6-2 score in the fourth period to pull away for a 16-11 victory over the Yellow Jackets in the regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon at Fauver Stadium.
 
The win keeps Union (11-3, 7-3 Liberty League) in a three-way tie for second place with Rochester Institute of Technology and Ithaca College in the conference standings heading into the postseason. The Garnet Chargers lose the tiebreaker between the three schools, however, and will be the fourth seed in the upcoming Liberty League Tournament.
 
Sophomore Maddy Schiller led all players with five goals and added an assist for six points. She was joined at six points by senior Greta Maurer with four goals and two assists, while sophomore Gillian Joseph chipped in three goals and two assists for five points as well for the Garnet Chargers.
 
Union finished the game with a 43-25 edge in shots, but the visitors had all they could handle against a pesky Rochester (5-12, 2-8 Liberty League) squad that stayed close before the decisive fourth frame. Union took the lead for good on a Maurer tally in the final minute of the third period that put the Garnet Chargers up 10-9, then got two goals from Schiller and one each from Joseph and Maurer to build up a 14-9 advantage with 9:15 remaining. The Yellow Jackets got back within three after a pair of Gracie Giannettino goals, but Maurer and Schiller finished off their huge second halves with one more each to put the game away. The pair scored all nine of their goals in the final 30 minutes and accounted for nine of the team’s 11 second-half tallies.
 
The teams traded runs over the first 30 minutes, as Union could not put any distance between the squads. A quick three-goal spurt made the score 3-1 in favor of Union 11:46 into the contest, but the Yellow Jackets came back with three in a row to take a 4-3 advantage. Following goals by junior Hannah Compa and first-year Stella Del Papa, the home team rattled off three more to take its largest lead of the game at 7-5 early in the third. Schiller scored twice as part of a 4-1 run to put Union back in front by a 9-8 margin, and Maurer’s tally late in the frame set the stage for the decisive fourth period, which saw Union outshoot Rochester by a 13-5 margin and turn the ball over only once.
 
Union will host fifth-seeded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium.  A full postseason preview will be posted on UnionAthletics.com early next week.