Vol. 13: St. Joe's Stuns the A-10, Steals Auto Bid
St. Joseph's knocked off the Atlantic 10's top-two seeds, Richmond and UMass—both top-25 teams—to win its first-ever A-10 Tournament and qualify for the NCAAs.
St. Joe’s celebrates its first-ever Atlantic 10 Tournament title after taking down top-seeded UMass, 15-11, on May 1. Photo courtesy: Thom Kendall / Atlantic 10.
Entering the Atlantic 10 Tournament, St. Joseph’s seemed nothing more than a nice story. Senior attacker Lauren Figura had earned A-10 Offensive Player of the Year, and the Hawks put together a solid 11-6 regular season, going 7-2 in conference play.
St. Joe’s lost convincingly, 20-6, to then-No. 9 Maryland in its season opener. The Hawks were drummed by Towson and Penn State in March. They lost to No. 19 UMass and No. 25 Richmond by a combined 20 goals in the regular season.
They entered the conference tournament as the three seed, and most thought the Minutewomen would take the A-10 Tournament title in a sport that, generally, lacks eye-popping upsets.
But, leaving the Atlantic 10 Tournament, St. Joe’s is the top story in the sport. The Hawks defeated sixth-seeded George Washington, 15-9, second-seeded Richmond, 10-9, and top-seeded UMass, 15-11, in a captivating run that earned head coach Alex Kahoe’s team its first A-10 Tournament title in program history.
The Hawks had defeated only one ranked team ever before this weekend, and this year’s team beat two in three days.
St. Joe’s took care of business against George Washington on Thursday to get the run started. The Hawks outscored the Colonials in each of the first three quarters and closed in dominant fashion.
Then came a pair of ranked opponents. The first was second-seeded and No. 18 Richmond. St. Joe’s once again started hot and led, 7-2, late in the first half. Figura scored three first-half goals, all of them unassisted.
Then the Hawks’ defense stole the show, holding Richmond off the board from 8:29 left in the first quarter to 2:41 left in the second, good for a 20-minute scoreless stretch. Richmond would cut the deficit to one goal twice, but the Hawks never surrendered the lead.
Richmond scored the final goal of the game with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter, and again the St. Joe’s defense was airtight in the contest’s waning minutes. Richmond had the final possession with 0:19 left, yet St. Joe’s didn’t even allow the Spiders to get a shot off, locking up a 10-9 victory.
Figura finished with a team-high five goals in the win, and sophomore goalie Jorden Concordia was stellar with just nine goals against and 12 saves.
The championship game featured St. Joe’s and No. 13 UMass, which went 9-0 in conference play during the regular season. The Hawks had lost to the Minutewomen, 14-8, just two weeks prior.
This time, though, St. Joe’s clawed back from multiple three-goal deficits, 3-0 and 6-3, and pulled within one by intermission. Figura again provided timely goals, scoring four times in the first half. In the third quarter, junior midfielder Riley Evans scored twice, and freshman attacker Maddie Yoder and junior attacker Lisa Ross found the back of the net. The Hawks outscored UMass, 4-0, in the frame to take a 10-8 lead.
UMass and St. Joe’s went goal-for-goal in the fourth, and St. Joe’s won, 15-11. Figura had another five goals and scored 13 goals and two assists in the tournament, earning her Most Outstanding Player honors. She has 71 goals this season, fifth most in the nation. Ross had four points on three goals and an assist, and Evans notched a hat trick. Concordia was again crucial in the win, tallying nine saves and 11 goals allowed versus the top offense in the A-10.
Concordia, Evans, Figura, Kolkka and graduate midfielder Taylor Newman-Farr all earned spots on the A-10 All-Championship Team, as the squad punched its first ticket to the NCAA Tournament in program history.
Call us crazy, but this seems more than a fluke. The defense shown in the tournament, plus Figura’s scoring, could earn the Hawks a trip to the second round.
Other Storylines to Know:
1. The ACC Tournament didn’t disappoint. The sport’s best conference boasted some of the best upsets of the year last week.
Pitt gets its first conference tournament victory: In their first-ever season, the Panthers began the ACC Tournament as the No. 8 seed because, even though they had the same league record (1-7) as ninth-seeded Louisville, they owned the tiebreaker over the Cardinals. Pitt beat Louisville for the second time this season last Wednesday, 13-10, in large part thanks to graduate goalie Paulina DiFatta, who made 19 saves, an ACC Tournament single-game record. A 4-0 run in the second quarter created enough separation for Pitt. The Panthers, however, were clobbered by UNC in the quarterfinals, 15-6.
Pitt goalie Paulina DiFatta set a single-game ACC Tournament record with 19 saves in the Panthers’ 13-10, opening-round win over Louisville. Photo courtesy: Pitt Athletics.
Notre Dame made its best case for an at-large bid: The Fighting Irish rank 17th nationally in RPI. But if they hadn’t gone on a four-game run, they wouldn’t have been NCAA Tournament eligible. Teams with sub-.500 records can’t earn an at-large bid. Luckily for head coach Christine Halfpenny’s program, it kicked things into gear when it mattered most. Notre Dame, which started the season 1-4 and then dipped to 5-8 after a Holy War loss at Boston College, rebounded to win its final three regular season games, defeating ACC bottom dwellers Pitt and Louisville as well as a middle-of-the-pack Marquette squad.
The Irish really turned heads in the ACC Tournament, though. They blitzed Duke by scoring 14 goals on 19 shots in the first half. Then, two days later, they staked themselves to a 5-0 lead against top-seeded North Carolina. UNC scored 10 of the game’s next 11 goals, yet Notre Dame ultimately pulled back within one with 1:38 left. Except, Tar Heels middie Elizabeth Hillman won the ensuing draw, and UNC ran out the clock. Still, Notre Dame probably did enough to book a ticket to its ninth NCAA Tournament in the last 11 years.
Virginia stepped up with its back against the wall, too: Duke wasn’t the only top-10 ACC team to swallow an upset in the conference tournament. Third-seeded Syracuse fell victim to UVA, which, like Notre Dame, was at the risk of missing out on May Madness. The stakes were even higher for the Cavaliers, who haven’t missed an NCAA Tournament since 1995. UVA came into Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with the Orange having lost all seven of the games in which it had faced RPI top-12 opponents this season. That changed in South Bend. Stud freshman Rachel Clark—now the highest-scoring first-year player in UVA history—found the back of the net six times, and veteran Ashlyn McGovern added four goals. A 5-0 second-half run by the Cavaliers tipped the scale.
UVA didn’t have the same punch offensively against BC in the semifinals, not to mention the Cavaliers didn’t have an answer for the Eagles’ seven-thread attack. Regardless of its 20-12 defeat to second-seeded BC, UVA is now .500 and might just grab an at-large bid.
BC-UNC will meet in the championship: We’ll dive into this matchup later, but these programs met in the ACC Championship back in 2018 and 2019. They also squared off in the Final Four in 2019 and 2021. The Tar Heels have had the upper hand in the league title game. On the other hand, Memorial Day Weekend has belonged to the Eagles.
2. There is the potential for bid thieves in the American East and CAA. Similar to what we saw with some college basketball teams who are joining new conferences next season, No. 6 Stony Brook of the America East and No. 10 James Madison of the CAA will be ineligible for their respective conference tournaments. Stony Brook is joining the CAA, and James Madison is joining the Sun Belt for most other spots. With no Sun Belt conference in women’s lacrosse, Shelly Klaes’ team will compete in the AAC.
The rest of the AE and CAA should be writing thank you notes. Without the Seawolves (6-0 in America East play) and the Dukes (6-0 in CAA play) competing in the conference tournaments, there are now two automatic bids up for grabs. Albany, Vermont, UMBC and Binghamton will compete for the American East title starting on Thursday. Towson, Drexel, Hofstra and Delaware will begin the CAA Tournament on Friday.
Last year, the CAA went 1-4 in the NCAA Tournament. JMU beat Johns Hopkins, 9-6, and lost to UNC, 14-9. Drexel, Towson and Hofstra all lost in the first round. Stony Brook was the only America East representative. The Seawolves beat Towson and Rutgers before falling, 14-11, to the Tar Heels.
Towson is the top seed in the CAA Tournament because JMU can’t participate, opening up a qualification path for the Tigers. Photo courtesy: John Malamphy via Towson Athletics.
3. So far, so good for Chris Sailer’s farewell tour. The legendary Princeton head coach is in her 36th and final season, and the No. 12 Princeton Tigers have run through the Ivy League. Princeton is 12-3 overall, with losses to No. 8 Loyola, 16-15, No. 6 Stony Brook, 16-8, and No. 3 Maryland, 19-9. In conference, Princeton has beaten all seven Ivy League opponents, winning by an average of 5.9 goals. A spot in the NCAA Tournament seems all but guaranteed. With two wins in the conference tournament, Princeton can secure its fifth Ivy League Tournament championship in six completed seasons (remember, no Ivy League lacrosse in 2020 and 2021).
The Tigers’ near sweep of the Ivy League year-end awards demonstrate just how dominant Princeton has been. Senior attacker Kyla Sears won Attacker of the Year with 53 goals and 25 assists. Senior defender Marge Donovan won Defender of the Year with 20 caused turnovers and 83 draw controls. Senior goalie Sam Fish won Goaltender of the Year, and Sailer won Coach of the Year.
Is that good?
4. Binghamton gets the last laugh in back-and-forth affair with UVM. Going into this past Saturday, Binghamton could guarantee a berth in the America East Tournament with a win over Vermont. If the Catamounts won, they would set a single-season wins record with 13. Vermont honored its 11 seniors (eight of them starters) before the game. Meanwhile, Binghamton fielded a starting 12 comprised of two freshmen, two sophomores, four juniors and four seniors.
The game was a thriller from start to finish. Neither team led by more than two goals at any point, and Binghamton scored the game-winner 25 seconds into overtime to pull off the upset, 11-10. The Catamounts controlled possession early, but Bearcats junior goalie Emily Manning made some crucial first quarter saves to keep the game close. A 17-minute Vermont scoring drought across the third and fourth quarters saw Binghamton take an 8-7 lead. Catamounts senior defender Carolyn Carrera, who leads the nation in caused turnovers per game (3.00) and is fourth in ground balls per game (3.27), then made this insane play for her first goal of the season.
Vermont stretch its lead to 10-8, but credit to Binghamton for slowing possession and scoring twice in the final five minutes to tie the game. The Bearcats had five players with multiple points, and no player scored more than two goals. Talk about a balanced offense. Manning finished with 10 goals against and 10 saves and earned America East Co-Defensive Player of the Week for her performance.
After a failed clear attempt by Vermont at the start of overtime, Binghamton sophomore midfielder Kristin Scheidel drew a free-position shot and buried it to win the game.
If you thought that was exciting, well, there’s good news: These two teams play in the first round of the America East Tournament on Thursday.
5. The MAAC Tournament delivered a triple-overtime masterpiece. Sixth-seeded Manhattan was trailing third-seeded Niagara, 10-4, at halftime. The Jaspers exploded for a 6-1 run in the third quarter and then a 3-1 surge in the final frame to tie the game at 14-14. Niagara went up with 3:41 on the clock, but Manhattan senior attacker Grace Lipponer logged the equalizer just before the horn—in fact, she had just 5.9 seconds to spare. Her goal forced overtime. Actually, the first of three overtime periods.
The goalies were on their A-game during the first extra frame. Niagara’s Michelle Messenger turned away three shots. Meanwhile, Manhattan’s Ashley Gambardella stopped two. With just under two minutes to go in the second overtime, Lexi Carne from Niagara saw her free-position attempt ding off the pipe. That was the closest the Purple Eagles got to victory. Manhattan won the opening draw of the third overtime period, and Lipponer—who finished with six points—made a bee-line inside the eight-meter for the game-winner.
Manhattan will play top-seeded Monmouth in the MAAC semis on Friday.
Weekly Focus:
UNC-BC HAS TURNED INTO THE SPORT’S TOP RIVALRY…
BC superstar attacker Charlotte North eyes the cage during the Eagles’ 16-15 loss to UNC on March 20. Photo courtesy: BC Athletics.
UNC, the No. 1 team in the Inside Lacrosse Poll each of the last six weeks, is still undefeated. What’s more, the Tar Heels have won 17 straight ACC Tournament games. That’s a league record. UNC is headed to its seventh straight ACC Tournament final, and it’s 11th in the last 12 years. With a win over BC on Saturday, the Tar Heels will lock up their sixth consecutive ACC Tournament title. That would tie the longest streak in ACC history (before moving to the Big Ten, Maryland won six straight ACC Championships from 2009-14).
BC, meanwhile, is searching for its first-ever ACC Tournament title. No BC program has won an ACC Championship since the men’s soccer team accomplished the feat in 2007. And head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s program has a chance to become the first women’s team in school history to take home an ACC Tournament title.
The Eagles knocked on the door of that accomplishment in 2018 and 2019 after stitching together perfect regular seasons. Both times, however, they lost by three or fewer goals to UNC in the ACC Championship.
There hasn’t been much that has separated the two ACC titans of late. While the Tar Heels won 12 of the teams’ first 13 meetings, UNC is only 7-5 in their last dozen bouts. Head coach Jenny Levy’s team boasts just +0.75 goals per game scoring margin in that span. And those 12 games were decided, on average, by 3.25 goals.
Despite losing in the ACC Championship in 2019, BC bested UNC in a double-overtime, Final Four thriller later that season. Then, although the Eagles didn’t reach the ACC Tournament title game in 2021, they spoiled UNC’s perfect season in the national semifinal with another one-goal win, en route to their first-ever national title.
UNC and BC never seem to disappoint. Back in March, they drew a crowd of nearly 6,000 fans in Alumni Stadium, and the Eagles almost orchestrated a six-goal comeback. All eyes will once again be on the nation’s top-two teams this weekend.
And, judging by the last few years, it probably won’t be the last time they meet in 2022.
Numbers to Know:
13 – Vanderbilt graduate attacker Gabby Fornia tallied the first 13-point game of the season in a 23-7 win over Cincinnati. Fornia had three goals and 10 assists. The herculean effort edged out Hailey Rhatigan’s 12-point game for Mercer and Ashley Humphrey’s 12-point game for Stanford.
342 – The Pittsburgh Panthers have more successful clears than any other team in the sport this season, registering 342 clears on 394 attempts (86.8%). The 394 attempts are also tops in the sport, meaning Pitt has spent a lot of time on the defensive end. Still, not bad for year one of the Pitt program. Virginia Tech has the highest clearing percentage in the country at 93.5%.
12, 11, 10 – The three-longest win streaks in women’s lacrosse, other than UNC, which is still undefeated at 17-0. No. 6 Stony Brook has won 12 straight, No. 8 Florida has won 11 straight, and No. 10 JMU has won 10 straight. For the Seawolves and the Dukes, their streaks can’t end until the NCAA Tournament. Florida begins the AAC Tournament on Thursday against East Carolina.
Tewaaraton Watch:
POINTS PER GAME LEADERS
GOALS PER GAME LEADERS
NOTE: Stats correct through May 3.
Inside Lacrosse Poll
Screenshots pulled from insidelacrosse.com.
For just the third time all season, no unranked teams cracked the Top 25, and no top-25 teams dropped out of the rankings. The beginning of conference tournaments and some upsets across the sport meant a minor shuffling of the deck. No. 5 Syracuse dropped two spots after a loss to No. 14 UVA, and No. 3 Maryland and No. 4 Northwestern moved up a rung. No. 11 Duke dropped from No. 7 after a surprising loss to No. 15 Notre Dame, moving No. 9 Princeton and No. 10 JMU into the Top 10. No. 12 Denver lost, 12-10, to Colorado and fell two spots as a result. No. 18 UConn fell four spots after a 22-12 defeat to Georgetown. We’re surprised the Huskies didn’t fall even more. No. 19 UMass and No. 25 Richmond slid six and seven spots, respectively, following their upset losses to St. Joe’s. While the Hawks aren’t in the IL Top 25, we have to shout out St. Joe’s for earning its first national ranking by any outlet. The Hawks are No. 19 in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Magazine rankings following their stellar weekend.
What’s Ahead?
No. 18 UConn vs. No. 12 Denver (Big East Tournament semis @ Denver), May 5, 3 p.m.
Cal/No. 23 Arizona State vs. No. 16 USC (Pac-12 Tournament semis @ ASU), May 5, 10 p.m.
Cornell vs. No. 23 Yale (Ivy League Tournament semis @ Princeton), May 6, 4 p.m.
Furman vs. Mercer (Big South Tournament semis @ High Point), May 6, 7 p.m.
No. 13 Rutgers vs. No. 4 Northwestern (Big Ten Tournament semis @ Rutgers), May 6, 8 p.m.
No. 1 UNC vs. No. 2 BC (ACC Tournament final @ UNC), May 7, 6 p.m.
To see the layout of this week’s conference tournament matchups, check out USA Lacrosse Magazine’s “Conference Championship Central” page.
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