For Immediate Release
April 17, 1999


Roanoke Closes Out Regular Season With 14-6 Win
Kylie Wernert and Ellie Page Combine to Score Nine Times

SALEM, Va.--The Roanoke College women’s lacrosse team survived an early scare from the Virginia Wesleyan Marlin to come away with a 14-6 Old Dominion Athletic Conference win over the Virginia Wesleyan Marlin on Saturday afternoon. Roanoke improves to 12-3 on the season and a perfect 8-0 in league play. The 12 wins are the most Roanoke has won in a regular season since the 1992 campaign, while the 8-0 record against conference opponents marks the sixth time the team has gone through the regular season without a conference loss.

Kylie Wernert (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) led the Roanoke charge on the day, scoring five goals and picking up nine groundballs. Ellie Page (Savannah, GA/Berkshire) scored four times for Roanoke, including the game-winner. Amy Kelaher (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) added three tallies for RC. In goal, Debbie Apazidis (New Canaan, CT/New Canaan) made 10 saves for Roanoke, which will head into next weekend’s conference tournament as the number-one seed.

After Page scored the first goal of the game, the Marlins scored three of the next four goals to take a 3-2 lead. However, Roanoke scored the final two goals of the first half to take a 4-3 lead into the break. Kelaher got the first of those two tallies, while Lindsay Wernert (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) added the other.

The two teams traded goals in the opening 11 minutes of the second half, but a Virginia Wesleyan score with 19:30 left in the game proved to be its last. The Maroons closed out the contest on a 7-0 run. Kylie Wernert scored three times during the run, while Page and Kelaher each found the back of the net twice.
 
After yielding six goals in the first 41 minutes of play, the Roanoke defense tightened up late in the game, allowing the offense to put the game out of reach. Roanoke outshot the Marlins, 35-20, on the day, and also picked up 43 groundballs, compared to Virginian Wesleyan’s 30. 

The Maroons will have the next week off, before hosting the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament next Saturday and Sunday. The Maroons, entering play as the number-one seed, will play the winner of Wednesday’s first round game which pits the number-four seed against the number-five seed. In addition to Roanoke, Randolph-Macon (2) and Washington & Lee (3) have already secured their positions in the upcoming tournament. The rest of the seeds (4-6) are pending on Saturday’s results.

The Maroons are in search of their ninth conference championship. In four of the previous five years that RC has gone undefeated in the conference’s regular season, it has gone on to win the conference tournament (1988, 1990, 1996, and 1997). The Maroons have played in every title game since the 1986 season.



Virginia Wesleyan (5-8, 2-6)	3	3-	6

#12 Roanoke (12-3, 8-0)		4	10-	14


Goals: VWC - Gent 2, Coderee 2, DiCave 2. RC - K. Wernert 5, Page 4, Kelaher 3, L. Wernert, O'Keefe.

Assists: RC - L. Wernert, Troup, Hunt.

Saves: VWC - Rapp 15. RC - Apazidis 10.

Shots: VWC - 20, RC - 35.

Groundballs: VWC - 30, RC - 43.

Draws: VWC - 9, RC - 13.