NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University women's lacrosse team clinched a spot in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament by racing out to a large lead in a 24-13 victory over Dominican on Wednesday afternoon at the WU Athletics Complex.
Despite racing out to the large lead, the Wildcats (6-9, 4-4 CACC) needed to respond midway through the second half after the Chargers (6-8, 5-3 CACC) closed the gap to as few as three goals.
The Wildcats started the game by scoring the first eight goals of the game. La'Dae Boykin scored three of the goals while Taylor Lambeth scored three other goals during the span. The Chargers finally got on the board with 18:39 left in the half, but the Wildcats answered with three straight to grab an 11-1 lead with 14:43 showing on the clock.
Dominican put a run together to close out the first half, however, scoring four straight and six of the final 10 goals of the first half to bring the score to 15-7 at the halftime break.
The Chargers closed the gap even more to start the second half, scoring the first five goals to climb back to within 15-12.
But La'Dae Boykin took the game over, scoring four straight to extend the lead back out to 19-12 with 13:52 left in regulation. Lashay Ross and Taylor Lambeth kept the momentum going before Boykin scored her nine goal of the game to put the Wildcats up 22-12. Dominican broke the 7-0 run by the Wildcats, but the Wildcats answered with the final two goals of the game, 24-13.
La'Dae Boykin set another single season program record for the Wildcats, posting nine goals to go with three assists for 12 points. After tying the mark on Monday, she broke the record set by Liz Case on April 6, 2013 against Nyack.
Taylor Lambeth contributed five goals and three assists while Marisa Parker, Mikailla Spencer, Lashay Ross, and Christina Ziegler scored two goals each. Parker finished with five points by adding three assists while Ross chipped in with two assists for four points as well.
The Wildcats scored 24 goals on just 32 shots, putting 30 shots on frame in the game. Maddie Hurm made 14 saves for the Wildcats in the victory.
The Wildcats are tied for fifth in the CACC Standings following Wednesday night's games. With one game to play, they are a game ahead of Holy Family, but hold the head-to-head over the Tigers, meaning they can finish no worse than sixth and earn a berth into the CACC Tournament.
The Wildcats' regular season wraps up on Saturday with a road game at Felician. The opening draw is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.
