Adelphi women's lacrosse earns second straight Northeast 10 title
Adelphi's Julia Foppiano looks to pass while being pressured by Pace's Colleen Gilligan during the Northeast 10 Conference women's championship lacrosse game at Motamed Field in Garden City. Credit: Derrick Dingle
The faintest of grins creased Pat McCabe’s face.
McCabe, the head coach of the Adelphi women's lacrosse team, had just been asked to describe his squad’s 14-13 win over Pace in the Northeast 10 women’s lacrosse championship game Saturday afternoon at Motamed Field.
“Gritty,” he said. “This is a gritty game. It always is. Both teams are tough and both want it really bad. So it was exciting.”
And it made the Panthers’ second straight conference titles, and overall, the ninth in program history that much more satisfying.
Because they had to fight for it.
Julia Foppiano led Adelphi with five goals and seven points. Goaltender Jillian McFadden, who was named the tournament’s MVP, made 18 saves. Ashley Kolomechuk scored the title-clinching goal with 1:37 left.
“That’s just the standard here at Adelphi,” Foppiano said. “Everyone comes here to win games.”
The second matchup of the season between top seed Adelphi and second-seeded Pace was diametrically opposite. The Panthers topped the Setters 18-8 on Mar. 25 in Garden City.
Thirty-eight days later, No. 11 Adelphi came into the rematch with a 12-4 record while No. 12 Pace was 14-4.
The return engagement was, in essence, a title bout between two evenly matched boxers who spent 60 minutes exchanging hard, accurate blows with the thought–and perhaps the belief–that the other would eventually let its guard down and become susceptible to an overhand haymaker.
The Panthers led 7-6 at halftime. Adelphi jumped out to a 3-1 lead 8:09 into the first quarter only for Pace to respond with three goals in a span of two minutes, twenty-four seconds to give itself a 4-3 advantage when the opening 15 minutes ended.
When the second quarter commenced, the Panthers had a surge of their own. That lasted until midway through the third quarter. From the start of the second to the five minute, 48-second mark of the third, Adelphi outscored Pace, 6-2, and looked like it was about to land the knockout blow.
But goals off the sticks of the Setters’ Alexandria Witucki, Annie Sheehan, and Mackenzie Carita before the end of the quarter sent the teams into the fourth tied 9-all.
“I always just tell myself, ‘See ball. Stop ball.’ It’s really not about how many (saves) you make. It’s about when you make them,” McFadden said. “I was able to just make as many as I could and it was enough today.”
Adelphi scored the first two goals of the fourth, but Carita netted back-to-back strikes in a 40-second span to draw Pace even at 11-all. The teams traded scores for the rest of the game.
