For Immediate Release
April 24, 1999


Roanoke and Randolph-Macon Advance to Title Game
Maroons Beat Lynchburg, Yellow Jackets Get Past W&L

SALEM, Va.--SALEM, VA—The Roanoke College Maroons and Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets each advanced to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s lacrosse championship game with semifinal victories on Saturday afternoon. Roanoke, the number-one seed, took a 15-5 decision over the Lynchburg College Hornets, while the second-seeded Yellow Jackets posted a 10-6 win over Washington & Lee University. Both teams advance to the title tilt which will be played at Roanoke’s Alumni Field at 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoon. 


Roanoke 15, Lynchburg 5


Lindsay Wernert (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) scored two goals and added a career-high six assists to lead Roanoke past fourth seeded Lynchburg College. The Maroons, who have advanced to each conference championship game since the 1986 season, also got four goals from Amy Kelaher (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) and three from Ellie Page (Savannah, GA/Berkshire).

The Hornets were led by sophomore Laurie Ward (Ellicott City, MD/Mount de Sales Academy) who scored a goal and added an assist. The goaltending duo of Kristen Booty (Annapolis, MD/Annapolis) and Jen McHugh (Bel Air, MD/C. Milton Wright) made 10 saves for the Hornets, who end their season with an 8-11 record.

The difference in the game proved to be a 7-0 Roanoke run that started with 5:36 left in the first half and did not end until 22:04 to go in the second half. The Maroons scored the first two goals of the game, but Lynchburg answered back to tie the score at the 22:51 mark of the first. The team traded tallies over the next 13 minutes to make the score 3-3. An indication of how the rest of Lynchburg’s day would go came at the 5:36 mark when a defensive miscue caused the Hornets to score on themselves. The Maroons scored two more by the end of the first half to make the score 6-3 at the break.

RC scored the first four of the second half, two apiece from Kelaher and Page. The Hornets came back with two of their own, the second coming at the 19:59 mark, a goal that would prove to be LC’s final on the day. The Maroons closed out the game on a 4-0 run, making the score 15-5 at the final buzzer. 

With the victory, Roanoke improves to 13-3 overall, and will be playing for its ninth conference championship, and seventh of the 1990s. Roanoke last won the league title in 1997.



Randolph-Macon 10, Washington & Lee 6


Randolph-Macon outscored Washington & Lee 7-2 in the first half, and withstood a late second half surge from the Generals to take a 10-6 decision. The Yellow Jackets will play for their first ever conference championship, never having advanced this far in the ODAC’s postseason tournament.
 
Carrie Winkler (Towson, MD/Loch Raven), the conference’s leading scorer in the regular season, scored four times and added two assists for the Yellow Jackets. Angela Bisland (Severna Park, MD/St. Mary’s) added two scores for Randolph-Macon, which improves to 11-4 on the year. RMC got 15 saves out of its goaltender Amy Whitcomb (Reisterstown, MD/Franklin).

The Yellow Jackets jump out to a quick 2-0 lead, getting goals from Winkler and Erin Reidy (Ellicott City, MD/McDonough), before Washington & Lee got on the board at the 19:57 mark. The Yellow Jackets then took a commanding 6-1 lead after going on a 4-0 run over the next 14 minutes. The Generals were able to score with 1:50 left in the first half, but saw their goal countered by a Macon tally just 56 seconds later. RMC took the 7-2 lead into the break.

Washington & Lee got on the board first in the second, scoring with 22:24 to go and again with 13:41 left. But again the Yellow Jackets used a scoring run, this time 3-0, to put a little daylight between themselves and the Generals. With under two minutes left, Washington & Lee’s Caroline Gee (Wilmington, DE/Tower Hill) scored twice to cut the lead to 10-6, but time ran out before W&L could mount any more of a comeback. 

This will be the second meeting between the Maroons and Yellow Jackets this season. On March 13th, Roanoke took home a 6-4 win in Ashland, VA. Roanoke has never lost to the Yellow Jackets in the conference tournament, going 5-0 since the league began play in 1983.



Lynchburg (8-11)   3    2-    5

Roanoke (13-3)    6    9-    15


Goals: LC - Ward, Sellers, Graul, Murray, Campbell. RC - Kelaher 4, Page
3, L. Wernert 2, K. Wernert 2, Hunt, Harding, O'Keefe, LC Own Goal.

Assists: LC - Ward. RC - L. Wernert 6, Hunt, Troup.

Saves: LC - Booty 6, McHugh 4. RC - Apazidis 7




Washington & Lee (7-8)    2    4-    6

Randolph-Macon (11-4)    7    3-    10


Goals: W&L - Gee, Treese, Borges, Priest, Ritsch. RMC - Winkler 4,
Bisland 2, Reidy, Weitzel, Harris, Gibson.

Assists: W&L - Treese. RMC - Winkler 2, Reidy.

Saves: W&L - Jernigan 11. RMC - Whitcomb 15.