Box Score YORK, PA – The York College women's lacrosse team advanced to the 2021 MAC Commonwealth championship game thanks to their 15-4 semifinal win over Widener University on Thursday evening in York.
The Spartans outscored the Pride 11-2 in the second half after taking a 4-2 lead to the break.
The Spartans, who are ranked 13th in this week's IWLCA Coaches Poll, improve to 12-2 overall with the win. They advance to face top seeded Messiah in Saturday's championship game. The Falcons advanced to the championship game courtesy of their 10-8 win over Stevenson in their semifinal game on Thursday.
How It Happened
• The Spartans struck for an early goal as Celly Arthur fed a cutting Jenna Cholowinski who finished the chance at the 28:04 mark for the 1-0 lead. Widener goalie Maddie Medve did a great job of keeping the Spartans at one goal over the next five minutes as the Spartans peppered her with four shots and she responded with three saves.
• The Green and White finally got a second goal when Cholowinski hit the Widener defense with a stop and go move that allowed her an open shot that she converted to put York up 2-0. Widener sliced the lead in half with Caroline Kelley goal off a restart with nine seconds left on the play clock with 18:55 left in the first half.
• York pushed the lead to 4-1 with goals from Arthur and Chloe MacDonald. Arthur got her goal on a drive and dodge at the 16:27 mark. MacDonald notched her tally on a free position shot with 15:44 left in the first half. Widener closed out the first half scoring with a Catherine Scott goal as she slid off a screen and finished a pass from Gab Cohen, cutting the York lead to 4-2.
• Medve was outstanding in the opening half as she made 11 saves on 20 Spartan shots, keeping the Pride in the game.
• Kelley opened the second half scoring just 1:42 into the second half as she had a one-on-one chance against Riley DiFiore that she converted into a goal. The Spartans used the remaining 28 minutes of the game to play one of their best halves of the year as they scored 11 of the final 12 goals of the game including a stretch of 10 straight goals.
• MacDonald started the run with a free position goal at the 27:41 mark. Riley Roeder followed with a very nice goal on a one-timer from Rachel Della to push the York led to 6-3. Cholowinski, Kiersten Blanchard, and Roeder each scored to put York up 9-3 with 15:55 left in the game. Arthur tallied back-to-back goals with a free position goal on an empty net followed by a tough goal in traffic as the lead grew to 11-3. Mia Alvarez and Madison Marciniak scored goals that were 36 seconds apart to give York a 10-goal advantage.
• Teresa Matthias notched a man-up goal with eight minutes left on the clock. The Pride got a man-up goal of their own from Katie Ward and Cholowinski closed out the scoring in the game with her fourth goal of the game with 2:07 left on the clock.
Spartan Leaders
Junior Jenna Cholowinski was outstanding as she tied a career-high with 10 draw controls while eshe also scored four goals and had three ground balls in the win … Celly Arthur continues her outstanding season as she had eight points on three goals and five assists … junior Chloe MacDonald had two goals, three draw controls, one caused turnover and one ground ball … Emmy Bryden continues to play well for York as she had four draw controls, two caused turnovers and a ground ball … Riley DiFiore played well again as she registered five saves in earning the win as she held Widener to 0-for-2 in free position shots.
Notes
The Spartans won both matches against Widener this year as they are now 2-0 all-time against the Pride … the Spartans are now 13-13 all-time in conference tournaments between the CAC and the MAC … the Spartans will make their first MAC Commonwealth championship appearance and their seventh conference tournament final appearance in program history … York is now 7-4 all-time in the semifinal round of the conference tournament … the Spartans are now 7-1 at home this year as they have outscored their eight opponents 137-48 (+89) as they have held seven of their eight opponents to single digits in scoring … the Spartans outscored Widener 33-7 in their two games this year … York won 19-of-20 draw controls in the game … the 19 draw control wins is the second highest total of the year, four behind the 23 won against Misericordia on March 31 … York has outscored their two tournament opponents by a combined 30-7 … after going 0-for-4 against Hood in free position shots, the Spartans went 3-for-7 in the win over the Pride … York outshot Widener 40-13 … there were six yellow cards and one green card in the game … Jenna Cholowinski set a new career high with four goals while she tied her career high with ten draw controls … Cholowinski has 30 draw controls in her last four games … Cholowinski has scored at least one goal in 12 of her 13 games while she has at least three draws in all 13 of her contests … junior Celly Arthur now has 76 points for the year which ties her for fifth on the single-season scoring list as she continues to push her school record for single season assists as she now has 52 in her 14 games.
Up Next
The Spartans will travel to Grantham, PA to take on the top-seeded Messiah University Falcons for the 2021 MAC Commonwealth tournament championship on Saturday. Game time at Messiah is set for 1:00 pm.
