The 2015 Golden Griffins women's lacrosse season comes to an end, as the team lost it's first MAAC Championship in the last five years to Fairfield. Despite a strong effort by the Griffs the team was unable to overcome the strong Stags defense and lost, 9-7, in front of a sold out crowd at the Demske Sports Complex.
Three Griffs were also named to the 2015 MAAC All-Tournament team after their performances against Marist and Fairfield. Goalie Kayla Scully and attackers Tori Quinn and Taylor Giglio were all recognized by the MAAC and coaches.
Canisius, who finishes the season with a 13-6 overall record, is now 4-2 all-time in the Championship game with the only previous loss coming in 2006. The Stags will advance to the first-round of the NCAA Tournament with a 14-4 overall record.
"I was extremely proud with how the team performed throughout the game and this whole season," said head coach Scott Teeter. "Although we didn't reach our goal of a fifth-straight MAAC Championship, we still had an extremely strong season, led by a very successful senior class. This will make us fight that much more next year to get back on top."
The Stags started out the scoring in the game at the 29:14 mark with Julieanne Mascera getting a good luck on goal and putting the team up 1-0 early. But Canisius wouldn't stay quiet for long as the team rattled off three straight goals by Tori Quinn, Meghan Cuddy and Ashley Bull from the 22:14 mark to the 16:55 mark to take a 3-1 lead. The teams battled defensively for the rest of the half until Fairfield went on a run with 4:49 left, scoring three-straight of their own to take a 4-3 lead headed into halftime.
The first half was also full of yellow-cards which would be costly for the Griffs as Bull and Erica Evans received them and Lauren Casadonte and Colleen Reynolds got them for Fairfield.
The Stags came out hot in the final-30 minutes of regulation, scoring four straight goals to take a coommanding 8-3 lead with 12:42 left in the game. The difference in the second half was when junior Ashley Bull got her second yellow-card of the game and was unable to take the field for the final 25:52 of regulation.
Canisius wouldn't give up though as the Blue and Gold battled back to score four-straight goals of their own. Cuddy scored her second and third of the game to get the ball rolling and Quinn, Taylor Giglio also added one of their own to cut the Stags lead down to just one.
With 6:00 left on the clock, Canisius was down 8-7 and the comeback seemed inevitable, but the defense of Fairfield was too much to overcome and the Griffs couldn't find the back of the goal to tie the game. The Stags scored one more goal with 1:56 to play and ultimately seal the victory.
Individually for the Blue and Gold, senior Meghan Cuddy led the team with three goals on six shots, Tori Quinn, who will leave the program tied for the career-lead in goals with 154, scored two of her own and recorded an assist and Giglio and Bull also had one goal each.
Senior Kayla Scully, who is the team's all-time leader in win's with 40, finished the game with eight saves in 58:04 of action.
Game Notes: With her two goals on the day, Tori Quinn will end her four-year career at Canisius being tied for first in school history with 154 goals (Megan Oosting)...this was the first time in five seasons that the Griffs haven't made it to the NCAA Tournament, the last time the Griffs didn't make it past the MAAC Championship was in 2010...the 2015 season saw numerous Griffs break school records, including Quinn who is the all-time leader in points, Bull, the single-season leader in draw controls and Scully who is the all-time leader in career-victories..this was the last game in the Blue and Gold uniform for the team's seven seniors as the careers of Quinn, Scully, Cuddy, Tori Greco, Casey Depauw, Natalie Wagaman and Whitley Perry come to an end with the loss.
