April 10, 2006

Boxscore
Courtesy of Belmont Abbey Sports Information

BELMONT, NC—Junior Corey Whitbeck (Newark, NY) scored both Knights goals in overtime to lead the St. Andrews Presbyterian College women's lacrosse team to a 13-12 overtime victory over Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference rival Belmont Abbey on Monday. SAPC, who has won two straight (defeated Lees-McRae 9-8 on Sunday), is tied for fourth in the CVAC heading into the conference tournament.

St. Andrews pulled out a 13-12 overtime victory at Belmont Abbey Monday afternoon in women’s collegiate lacrosse.  The Knights tallied twice in the second half of overtime to come from behind and win the game. The Crusaders are 8-8 overall and 3-6 in the CVAC, while SAPC, who has won three of their last four, improved to 6-10, 3-7 in the league.   

The Abbey led for most of the first half but St. Andrews took a 7-6 lead with 3:21 left in the period on a goal from Kelsey Binggeli. The Crusaders finished strong, however, and regained an 8-7 advantage going into the break with two goals from Shannon Farden in the last 2:15.

Belmont Abbey made it 9-7, six minutes into the second half and the score remained there for almost nine minutes.  Finally, the Knights broke through with a goal by Whitbeck at the 15:19 mark to pull back within one. St. Andrews struck again less than two minutes later to tie the score at nine and set up the back and forth finish. 

The Knights went made it 10-9 with 6:46 to play and it got worse of BAC when Samantha Hooker earned a yellow card after the goal. The Crusaders, playing without any substitutes, had to play down a man for the next three minutes. SAPC took advantage with 5:20 left and made it 11-9 on another goal from Binggeli. 

Belmont Abbey gave itself a chance at the tie with a goal from Theresa Nolan with 2:34 on the clock to make it 11-10.  St. Andrews won the draw control and set forth to run out the clock. The Crusaders finally forced a turnover with 15 seconds left and passed the ball to Rachel Davis in midfield.  Davis streaked up the field and with only two seconds left, beat Eryn McCaffrey in goal to tie the game back up at 11-11. 

The Abbey won control of the ball in the first three-minute overtime and prodded at the Knights defense looking for the right shot. Shannon Farden, BAC’s top scorer, took possession in the waning seconds and with only three ticks left, she buried a shot into the net for the 12-11 lead. 

The Crusader’s lost the key draw control to start the second overtime and had to defend while St. Andrews looked for the equalizer. It came just under a minute into the period from the dynamic Whitbeck. Whitbeck then won the crucial draw control that followed and less than 30 seconds later she spun away from her defender and scored the game-winner low into the net.

Farden led the Abbey with six goals and Nolan added three goals and two assists.  Davis scored twice and Meghan Darley tallied once. For the Knights, Katie Wright led with five goals and Whitbeck added four, including the game-tying and game winning goals in overtime. Binggeli added three strikes and Jitase Hall scored once. Kate Gavin made nine saves in defeat while McCaffrey made 13, including two clutch saves in the second overtime.