LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. - - Holding its own destiny to reach the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference playoffs, the Wilmington University women's lacrosse were upset by Chestnut Hill, 17-11, in the final regular season game for both squads on Wednesday night at Varsity Field #1 at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
With the loss, Wilmington (9-7, 6-6 CACC) now becomes Philadelphia University's biggest fan, as the Rams face Dominican on Sunday with the final CACC Tournament berth on the line. If Philadelphia defeats Dominican, the Wildcats and Dominican would be deadlocked at 6-6 in the conference standings. Wilmington holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Dominican by defeating the Chargers twice this season and would be the No. 4 seed in the upcoming playoffs.
If Dominican wins on Sunday however, the Chargers will slide into the No. 3 seed while Philadelphia and Wilmington would be tied at 6-6 in the standings. Philadelphia defeated Wilmington both times this year, holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wildcats, placing the Rams in fourth and eliminating the Wildcats.
Wilmington could not carry the momentum it created in the latter portion of the first half deep in the second half, as Chestnut Hill (3-13, 3-9 CACC) outscored the Wildcats 9-4 in the second half.
Trailing 8-5 with fewer than two minutes remaining in the first half, the Wildcats scored the final two goals of the first half to cut the deficit to one heading into the halftime break. Rebecca Guethler made it a two goal game as she fired in an unassisted goal with 1:32 left to play in the first half.
After goaltender Kaitlyn Hall made a save on a free position shot with 34 seconds left, the Wildcats forced the Griffins into a turnover with 14 seconds remaining and pushed the ball into the offensive zone. Molly Taylor collected the ball and drove to the net but had the ball pop out of her stick in front of the crease. With barely a second showing on the scoreboard, Taylor swatted the ball out of mid-air knee high and beat the Griffin net-minder before the horn sounded, making it 8-7 in favor of the home team at the break.
The Wildcats kept that momentum for the first two-minutes of the second half, as Taylor tied the game with her second goal of the game at the 1:56 mark into the second stanza.
But Chestnut Hill scored the next three goals to take a three-goal advantage once again and the Wildcats would only get within two goals the rest of the night.
Rebekah McCurry cut the lead down to two on two separate occasions, the last with 9:58 to play on a nice pass from Jaclyn Hall to make it 12-10. But Chestnut Hill would not be denied on its Senior Night, as it retaliated with three consecutive goals once again to widen the margin to 15-10 with 5:47 to play.
Meggan Apgar made a nice move in front of the cage to split two defenders and beat Griffin goalkeeper Jenn Delahanty with 4:56 to play, but it was too little too late as Chestnut Hill tacked on two more in the final three minutes to close out the scoring.
Guethler led the Wildcat attack with four goals on the night, followed by Apgar's hat trick. Taylor and McCurry both rattled off two goals for the Wildcats while Liz Case and Jaclyn Hall tallied assists in the game.
Kaitlyn Hall recorded 10 saves in the loss, while Delahanty made 16 stops in goal for the Griffins. Chestnut Hill's Kelly McKay led all scorers with six goals on the night while Erica Eaby tallied four.
The Wildcats will wait until the result on Sunday to see if they made the playoffs. The CACC Tournament begins on Saturday, May 5 with two semifinals matchup before the champion is crowned on Sunday. If Philadelphia wins on Sunday, the Wildcats will face No. 1 seed Holy Family next Saturday. The Philadelphia and Dominican came starts at noon and is being played at Dominican.