GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The historic first season of Grove City College varsity women's lacrosse achieved another milestone Wednesday night as the Wolverines earned their first-ever postseason victory as second-seeded Grove City (14-3) earned a 12-6 home win over Franciscan in the Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals at Don Lyle Field.
Grove City will now visit Washington & Jefferson in Saturday's title game. The top-seeded Presidents downed Saint Vincent in Wednesday night's other semifinal, 18-6.
Sophomore attack
Madeline Dunda (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) fired in a career-high five goals to pace Grove City while senior attack
Brooke Stoltzfus (Elverson, Pa./Conestoga Christian) and junior midfielder
Madison Nazigian (Forest, Va./Jefferson Forest) each pumped in three goals. Freshman midfielder
Amber Wartman (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) also scored in the win.
Dunda fired in three first-half goals and Stoltzfus scored once in each of the first two periods to give Grove City a 5-0 halftime lead. Grove City extended its lead to 9-1 early in the fourth quarter as Dunda scored with 49 seconds left in the third quarter and 55 seconds into the final period.
Franciscan charged back to within 9-5 but Nazigian scored consecutive goals to seal the win.
Stoltzfus added an assist for Grove City. Nazigian recorded five draw controls and Stoltzfus had a pair.
Freshman defender
Sarah Jackson (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield) and freshman attack
Abby Roetering (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) both caused three turnovers. Nazigian caused a pair of turnovers. Jackson recorded five ground balls and Nazigian totaled four ground balls. Stoltzfus and Wartman each had three ground balls.
In goal, freshman
Elyse Kiggins (Zelienople, Pa./Seneca Valley) stopped 10 shots to secure her league-best 14th win of the year. It is her sixth game with 10 or more saves this season.
Grove City outshot the Barons, 31-24. Grove City had 27 turnovers while Franciscan totaled 26 turnovers.
The Wolverines will visit W&J for the second time in a week. W&J defeated Grove City in the regular season finale last Saturday, 17-9.
