Roanoke Wins Tenth Lacrosse Title

Snaps Six-Year Run for Washington and Lee

SALEM, Va. --- Roanoke College dug itself out of a five-goal first half hole on Sunday afternoon as the Maroons clawed their way to an 11-9 victory over Washington and Lee University in the 2009 ODAC Women's Lacrosse Tournament championship game.

Roanoke's win marks the program's 10th conference title, tying the Generals for most in ODAC history.  The victory also snapped W&L's six-year run as conference champion.

Washington and Lee did waste any time in trying to make amends for a regular season loss to Roanoke.  Kelsi Robinson scored twice as the Generals opened up a 5-0 lead just under 11 minutes into the game.  Roanoke responded with back-to-back goals from Gina Valles and Carolyn Miller to cut into W&L's lead, but Wilton Megargel got one back for W&L for a 6-2 advantage.  Valles tallied for the second time with 0:05 on the clock to send the two squads into the break with W&L ahead, 6-3.

Valles tallied twice around another goal from Miller as Roanoke opened the second frame with three goals to level the score at 6-6 with 24:32 to play.

W&L got two more goals, one each from Robinson and Emmy Mathews, but an Elizabeth Hartge goal in between those of Robinson and Mathews left the Generals ahead by one, 8-7, with 16:16 to go.

Roanoke asserted itself over the final 15 minutes, answering W&L's first half run with a scoring string of its own.  Sunni Ray and Valles notched player-up goals to give the Maroons their first lead of the game at 9-8 with 11:14 showing on the clock.  Paige Mason and Ella Wade padded RC's lead with two more scores, giving the Maroons some breathing room with 6:27 to play.

Meredith Freeman mustered one more goal for Washington and Lee, but the Generals' couldn't muster much more offense as the clock played against them through to the final horn.

Valles led all scorers with five goals to go with one assist.  Miller scored twice with Wade, Mason and Ray finishing with one goal apiece.  Katlyn Scarlett registered seven saves between the pipes.

Robinson led W&L with three goals teamed with one helper.  Freeman added two more Generals' tallies while Megargel, Mathews and Colleen Evans scored once.  Katherine Farrar stopped four Maroons' shots.

Roanoke earns the ODAC's automatic bid into the 2009 NCAA Division III Tournament.  Washington and Lee will await a possible at-large bid into the tourney field.

2009 All-Tournament Team
Carolyn Clark, Roanoke
Paige Mason, Roanoke
Carolyn Miller, Roanoke
Katlyn Scarlett, Roanoke
Gina Valles, Roanoke
Colleen Evans, Washington and Lee
Emmy Mathews, Washington and Lee
Kelsi Robinson, Washington and Lee
Morgan Hutchinson, Randolph-Macon
Erin Clare Cassidy, Randolph-Macon
Laura Norris, Virginia Wesleyan
Amy Sraver, Virginia Wesleyan