Back-To-Back! Salisbury Repeats As NCAA Women's Lacrosse Champions With 9-6 Victory Over Trinity
Junior midfielder Bethany Baer tallied two goals and two ground balls and earned Championship Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors while junior attack Kate Haker notched three goals and an assist and senior attack Shannon Carta recorded four assists to lead Salisbury to its second straight NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship with a 9-6 victory over Trinity (Conn.) on Sunday in Gettysburg, Pa.
The matchup between the Sea Gulls (23-1) and Bantams (19-3) marked the third consecutive title game meeting for the two sides. Salisbury captured last year's crown, 12-5, while Trinity won the 2012 title by a score of 8-7.
The championship game appearance marked Salisbury's fourth title game berth in the last five years and seventh since 2005.
For the second straight year, Salisbury finished the season with a CAC-record 23 wins. It marks the seventh 20-win season in the last eight years for the Sea Gulls.
It also marks the fifth-straight year that one of the Salisbury lacrosse teams won a national crown, with the women securing titles in 2010, 2013 and 2014 and the men winnning crowns in 2011 and 2012. The Salisbury men fell to Tufts, 12-9, in the national title game on Sunday in Baltimore.
After a scoreless opening six minutes, Salisbury came out firing as the Sea Gulls buried three goals in the ensuing six minutes with scores from Megan Wallenhorst, Shelby Nemecek and Haker and two helpers from Shannon Carta.
Haker added on two more for the Sea Gulls before halftime, giving the defending champs a 5-0 edge at the break. Salisbury forced the Bantams into seven first-half turnovers and limited them to just six shots.
Following the intermission, Trinity found the back of the net twice to cut the SU lead to 5-2, but the Sea Gulls responded with four straight tallies, including two from Baer and Nemecek's second of the game, pushing the advantage to 9-2 with 17:52 remaining.
The Bantams made a late push with a trio of scores in the closing minutes, but the Salisbury defense proved to be too tough an obstacle throughout the contest as the Sea Gulls came away with the final three-goal margin of victory.
Senior goalkeeper Ashton Wheatley turned back four shots to earn the win in net.