The Canisius women's lacrosse team will compete in it's fifth-straight MAAC Championship game this Sunday at the Demske Sports Complex, after the team defeated No. 4 seeded Marist in the MAAC semifinal round on Friday evening, 15-7.
Canisius will look to defend it's four-straight MAAC titles on Sunday as the team takes on MAAC foe Fairfield at Noon. The Griffs have already defeated the Stags once this season, downing the MAAC opponent 13-10 on April 1. The Stags advanced to the Championship match-up after defeating No. 3 seed Monmouth, 8-7 in the earlier semi-final game.
The Blue and Gold were led by junior attack Taylor Giglio who had five points to lead the team against the Red Foxes. Giglio had four goals on four shots, including three first-half goals and a behind the back goal in the second half to put the Griffs up 10-4 over Marist.
Besides Giglio two other Griffs had multiple goals in the game, including MAAC Rookie and Midfielder of the Year Erica Evans, who had two goals and two assists and junior Ashley Bull, an All-MAAC First Team member, who had three goals, two ground balls and five draw controls to lead the team.
Senior Tori Quinn scored her goal in the first half to get the Griffs within one goal at the 17:18 mark and from there the Blue and Gold would go on a 4-1 run to end the first half to go into the locker room 6-4.
"I was extremely proud with how our girls bounced back after a slow-start in the first half," said head coach Scott Teeter, the 2015 MAAC Coach of the Year. "Not only did we show resiliance and gritt as a team, but we put together an all-around strong effort against one of our MAAC rivals in the most important time of the year. Scully was a brick-wall in goal for us tonight and we got some strong goals from Taylor (Giglio) and Ashley (Bull) that really took us to the next level."
Five other Griffs found the back of the net in the second half, as Canisius closed out the final 30 minutes of action on a highlight filled 9-3 run. Freshmen Allie Stewart and Lauren Smolensky, senior's Meghan Cuddy and Whitley Perry and junior Caroline Ogden all scored in the final 30 minutes of regulation.
Senior Kayla Scully got the start in goal for the Griffs and despite letting in three early goals, the goalkeeper put on a show throughout the final 47 minutes of action, making highlight saves throughout the rest of the game to lead the team to the tournament victory. Scully had eight saves in the game and now is 9-3 on the season.
Overall the Griffs led the Red Foxes in six different stat categories, inclduing 32-20 in shots, 8-7 in saves, 16-8 in ground balls, 14-10 in draw controls, 16-16 compared to 12-16 on clears and 2-6 on free position attempts compared to 1-7 for Marist.
Game Notes: This was the fourth-straight season that the Griffs ended Marist's season in the MAAC Championships...Claire Bollin's assists in the game was a career-high for the freshman...Scully's victory in net improves her to 40 career victories, two above the previous Canisius record of 38...this will be the third time in five years that the Griffs and Stags meet in the MAAC playoffs, with Canisius winning all three of those times...head coach Scott Teeter is now 10-0 as a father.
