Loyola Maryland women’s lacrosse entered Saturday with seven Patriot League Tournament titles, winning all of them by four goals or more in the final.
Their eighth conference championship was a whole lot tighter than the Greyhounds have been accustomed.
Junior attacker Georgia Latch scored the game-winning goal with 1:36 remaining in overtime as top-seeded Loyola won a thriller over No. 2 seed Navy, 12-11, on a rainy afternoon at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Loyola won the draw to start the extra session and Latch was injured after being pushed to the artificial turf by Navy midfielder Mikayla Williams, who was given a green card. The Midshipmen were able to survive being down a defender for one minute.
Jalin Jenkins had just entered the defensive end to make it all even when Latch started her drive to the goal, circling around to the right side. The Australia native got off a sidearm shot that appeared to deflect off the stick of Navy defender Caroline Stefans and into the net.
“We had just come off a woman-up play and the defense was a little bit frazzled trying to get back to their numbers,” Latch said. “I came off a sweep and they switched a little late. It definitely wasn’t my prettiest shot, but a goal’s a goal and it won us a big game.”
During the break between regulation and overtime, Loyola coach Jen Adams made a statement that turned out not to be true.
“I said to the team, ‘You’ve been here before and I just found out this entire group, all the way to the graduate students, had never played an overtime game.’ So that was a bit of coachspeak and lie there,” Adams said with a laugh. “At the end of the day, I couldn’t be prouder of this group. It was a hard-fought battle and we’re really happy to come out on the winning side of this one.”
Junior midfielder Chase Boyle and senior attack Sydni Black both totaled four goals and an assist for Loyola (17-2), which beat Navy in the championship game for the fifth time. Latch finished with a goal and two assists for the Greyhounds, who earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s always the goal to get an automatic bid. We never want to rely on other people to pick and choose for us. We can sleep easy tonight,” Latch said. “Our goal is to always get to Memorial Day weekend and I think we have a real shot of doing that.”
Junior midfielder Emily Messinese scored five goals to lead Navy (15-4), which was seeking its seventh Patriot League Tournament title. Sophom*ore attacker Emma Kennedy had a career-best day across the board with three goals and two assists for the Mids, who pushed the perennially powerful Greyhounds to the limit.
“We love each other and we went out there and put everything on the field. Every single person did their role 100%. Everyone left everything they had out on the field,” Messinese said. “I felt like we were able to put a full game together. It didn’t turn out the way we would have wanted, but we played a heck of a game.”
Freshman goalie Felicia Giglio made a career-high 10 saves, while junior defender Alyssa Daley came away with 10 draw controls for the Midshipmen.
“It was a tough loss for Navy. I’m just so proud of the team and the way they play for each other. Fighting for a championship is always very special. We fought hard and it could have gone either way,” Navy coach Cindy Timchal said.
Loyola had beaten Navy, 17-12, on March 20 at Ridley Athletic Complex. The Greyhounds outscored the Mids 9-2 in the second quarter and were never seriously threatened thereafter.
Adams cited the superb play of Giglio and the draw work of Daley has primary reasons Navy was able to keep the rematch close throughout. In the first meeting, Boyle captured 12 draw controls, while Giglio only made two saves before being pulled.
“Giglio as a freshman played really well. She stood on her head to make some of those saves,” Adams said. “Navy did a great job on the draw. Their center has been playing phenomenally lately. Chase had a little bit of trouble with her today.”
Kennedy scored with 53 seconds remaining to tie the game at 6 entering halftime. It was a back-and-forth first half that featured four ties. Loyola led by two goals twice, including 6-4 with 5:28 remaining in the second quarter.
It was easily the toughest any Patriot League opponent played Loyola this season. Previously, the smallest lead the Greyhounds held at halftime was 9-5 against Lehigh. In this season’s first meeting between the schools, Loyola led Navy 13-5 at halftime.
“It was definitely really frustrating not being able to gap them a little bit with the lead,” Latch said. “Fortunately, our defense did a really good job of shutting them down.”
Loyola scored twice in the span of a minute to start the second half to take an 8-6 lead. However, the Greyhounds once again could not push the advantage to three goals as the Mids responded in impressive fashion.
Kennedy cut to the crease, took a pass from Tori DiCarlo and fired a shot into the top corner to cap a 3-0 run that gave Navy a 9-8 lead at the end of the third quarter. It was just the third time this season that Loyola trailed after three quarters with the other occasions coming in losses to Syracuse and Penn.
Giglio made three big saves early in the fourth quarter to preserve the one-goal advantage. However, Black broke through with an unassisted goal off a free-position opportunity to tie the score for the sixth time, 9-9, at the 10:11 mark.
Loyola won the draw and just 12 seconds later Black scored again off a tremendous individual move as she raced past multiple defenders for a point-blank shot that put the Greyhounds ahead, 10-9.
“Sydni Black had such a strong will to win today and basically said put the team on my shoulders,” Adams said. “She’s a special player and today she proved why she’s one of the best attackers in the country.”
Navy got off two shots on the subsequent possession, but both were way wide. A shot-clock violation gave the ball back to Loyola and Boyle went end-to-end for a goal that gave the home team a two-goal cushion for the fourth time.
Boyle cleared the ball the length of the field then drove right to the net for a short shot that made it 11-9 with 7:46 remaining.
As was the case the entire contest, Navy would not allow the deficit to reach three as Messinese used a nice change-of-direction move to get time and space for a sidearm shot from 6 yards out get the visitors back within one with 6:34 to go.
Messinese struck again just under four minutes later, using multiple moves to work past a pesky defender and firing a short shot through traffic that created the seventh time, 11-11, with 2:41 left on the clock.
“It’s a true reflection on what a warrior athlete Emily Mess is and how she has that never, ever give up mentality,” Timchal said.
The Mids won the ensuing draw and had two chances to score the go-ahead goal, but Messinese shot high and freshman midfielder Mikayla Williams had her soft shot stopped by Spence. The Greyhounds got the ball into their offensive end in the final minute and Adams called timeout with 32 seconds left to set up a play.
Not surprisingly, Adams put the ball in the stick of Black, who tried hard to get to her strong hand on the right side of the field. However, Black was cut off by a second defender and that allowed trailing defender Jaclyn Johns to check the ball out of her stick from behind.
Navy called timeout with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, but was unable to get off a shot before the final horn — sending the game to the extra session.
“An incredible effort by the players to stay composed and stay in the moment. It was a real game of ebbs and flows. We’d get two goals ahead then they’d catch back up. They would get a goal ahead and we would catch back up. That’s championship lacrosse right there,” Adams said.
It was only the second time the Patriot League women’s lacrosse championship game went to overtime. That previously happened in 2004 when Colgate beat American, 11-10.
Loyola’s lone losses came against teams currently ranked third (Syracuse) and 10th (Penn) in the latest Inside Lacrosse/IWLCA poll. The Greyhounds have wins over five opponents that were ranked at the time they played them.
Adams was asked afterward if she thought Loyola was deserving of a home game in the NCAA Tournament.
“You can only hope. I think this team has done what it can do. We’d love to take back the Penn and Syracuse losses,” Adams said. “To come out of this season undefeated at home and to have beaten some of the top teams in the country… I don’t think we could have asked for more out of this group.Wherever we wind up, we’re just happy to be there.”
Meanwhile, Timchal is hopeful the impressive performance in the championship game will lead the NCAA Tournament selection committee to award the program an at-large berth.
“We just hope the committee will understand how strong we are and how much we love lacrosse. I think our profile is good in terms of our winning percentage and RPI. We’ve proven that we can compete with almost anyone in the country,” Timchal said.
NCAA women’s lacrosse selection show
Sunday, 9 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
