WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic University women's lacrosse team booked its place in Saturday's Landmark Conference Championship game with a record-breaking showing in the semifinal contest on Thursday afternoon.
Meghan McDonogh's team dismantled the River Hawks by a score of 16-1, setting a new record for fewest goals ever conceded in a Landmark Conference Tournament game. Catholic's suffocating defense caused Susquehanna all sorts of problems as the Cardinals held the River Hawks to just 12-of-20 in the clear and caused 25 total turnovers. Catholic had five or more takeaways in all four quarters.
With her third caused turnover of the game with 9:40 remaining in the fourth quarter, Rachel Rubenstein set the program record for most caused turnovers by a Catholic player in a single season. Her three caused turnovers pushed her to 48 this year and 125 in her impressive Catholic career. She also scooped up five ground balls on the day.
Caroline Gaines led the defense with four caused turnovers and won two draw controls while Jessie Lee matched Rubenstein with five ground balls. Lee won three draw controls as Riley Martin continued her impressive senior campaign with five draw controls. Ariana Bransfield also pitched in with three draw controls.
Charlotte Spaulding followed up her career-best six-goal game in the regular-season finale on Saturday in style with five goals to lead the Cardinals. The freshman has been a revelation of late, scoring four or more goals in three of her last five games. After failing to register a point in the first seven appearances of her collegiate career, she has netted 16 goals in her last five games.
Mattea Del Peschio set the tone early for the Cardinals, netting a first-quarter hat trick in less than two minutes of game time. After Spaulding opened the scoring three-and-a-half minutes into the contest, Del Peschio scored a trio of unassisted tallies to push Catholic out to a 4-0 lead with three minutes remaining in the stanza, and the Cardinals would never look back. The senior added an assist to extend her lead as the team's top point scorer this season, pushing her totals to 25 goals and 21 assists.
Last week's Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Week Mia Perkell joined Spaulding and Del Peschio with hat tricks on the day. The former Rochester attacker pushed her season total to 35, continuing to improve upon the best scoring season of her career. She sits atop Catholic's scoring charts this season and has netted multiple goals in six of her last seven games.
The team seem to be peaking at the right time with this victory marking its seventh consecutive win. The triumph earns them a spot in their 16th-straight Landmark Conference Championship game and sets up a rematch of last year's final that saw Scranton defeat Catholic, 17-10. The Royals downed Juniata 14-7 in the other semifinal to secure the right to host the final on Saturday as the top-seeded Royals are looking to win back-to-back titles for the first time in their program's history.
Catholic's last loss of this season came at the hands of the Royals, and the Cardinals will look to exact revenge on Scranton on Saturday for both that loss and last year's championship result. This will mark the eighth-consecutive season in which Catholic and Scranton have met in the title game. The start time for the game will be confirmed by conference in the coming hours.
