ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Tournament Most Valuable Player Katie Caprinolo scored five goals as Elizabethtown College won its first Middle Atlantic Conference women's lacrosse championship with an 11-4 victory over FDU-Florham Saturday afternoon at Wolf Field.
Megan Byrnes and Sarah Cullinan each scored a pair of goals for the Blue Jays (15-4 overall), who controlled the game from start to finish and erased memories of one-goal losses in each of the previous two championship matches. The Blue Jays will make their first appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament, and will learn the date, site and opponent in their first game Sunday night.
Kristen Schuster scored a pair of goals for the Devils (14-6 overall), who were outshot by a 30-11 margin and failed in 14 of their 26 clear attempts.
Elizabethtown jumped to a 3-0 lead on their first three shots of the game, as Katelyn Slade, Byrnes and Cullinan scored in the first six minutes. Sara Franckowiak put the Devils on the board with 22:51 left in the first half, but the Blue Jays scored the final three goals as Caprinolo tallied twice and Cullinan added a goal with 2:57 remaining to send Elizabethtown to intermission with a 6-1 lead.
Schuster scored three minutes into the second half to pull FDU-Florham within 6-2, but a four-goal run that featured three goals from Caprinolo and one from Becky Porter gave Elizabethtown a 10-2 lead with 10:24 left. Ashley Schlindwein and Schuster scored 18 seconds apart to bring the Devils within 10-4 with 8:55 to go, but the Blue Jays used ball control to run down the clock and Byrnes scored the closing goal with 3:10 left.
Cullinan had an outstanding two-way game for the Blue Jays, finishing with six ground balls and six caused turnovers, while Porter had three ground balls and four draw controls. Stephanie Kreis contributed a pair of assists and had three ground balls and three draw controls for the Blue Jays in the win.
Elizabethtown shut down the FDU-Florham scoring trio of Schuster, Lindsay Parent and Linda Bohn, who came into the game having combined for 140 goals and 61 assists this season. Schuster finished with two goals in the contest, while Bohn had one assist and Parent was held without a shot by the defensive efforts of Alexis Morris, Sarah Behounek and Caitlin Russell.
The FDU defense was led by Breana Kilpatrick, who had four caused turnovers, two ground balls and a pair of draw controls.
Rachael Waldman made six saves in goal for the Blue Jays while Kelly Butler finished with 13 stops in 51 minutes for the Devils.