Eagles Advance in First Round of NAIA Championships

Southfield, Michigan - Eagles Women's Lacrosse get the win and advance to the semifinals of the NAIA Women's Lacrosse Tournament with a 15-14 victory over Life University.  Jillian Mello led the way for the Eagles scoring 5 of the 15 goals. Mello also had 2 assists and one draw control in the game. Mello was helped by Morgan McGhee, Kelsey Sowa, and Anna-Marie Gazzo who all had multiple goals in the game. McGhee had 4 goals, Sowa put in 3, and Gazzo netted 2 to push the Eagles past a strong Life University team. Shelby O'Neil also had one goal to help the Eagles.

Defensively, Jessie Landers had 8 saves on 22 shot attempts by Life. Landers also had 3 ground balls in the game. Angela Sciacchitano, Mia Griswold, and Torrie Smith had good games defensively creating turnovers and getting ground balls for the Eagles. Sciacchitano had 5 ground balls and created 3 turnovers. Griswold had 3 ground balls and caused 3 turnovers. Smith ended up with 2 ground balls and one caused turnover.

The Eagles will face the conference host, Lawrence Tech, on Thursday afternoon for one of the semifinal games. The winner will advance to the National Championship Game which will be played on Saturday at 1 pm.

from the NAIA website:

No. 4 Reinhardt (Ga.) def. No. 5 Life (Ga.) 15-14 (Box Score) 

• The two teams traded goals in the first two minutes of play before Jillian Mello give Reinhardt a 2-1 advantage with 12:16 remaining. 
• Maria Arvizu dished out a pair of assists as Life netted three straight goals to take a 4-2 lead.   
• Reinhardt responded with a three-goal run of their own, including two in the final minute, to take a 5-4 advantage after the opening period. 
• Life opened the second half with Angie Forbes scoring twice as part of three unanswered goals to take a 7-5 edge with 7:32 remaining. 
• Reinhardt even the game five minutes later as Morgan McGhee added an assist and a goal to give the Eagles a 9-7 lead at the half. 
• The Eagles extended their lead to 10-7, however, Life scored the next five goals to even the game at 11-11 with 6:14 remaining in the third quarter. 
• The teams traded goals before Anna-Marie Gazzo found Kelsey Sowa for a goal to give Reinhardt a 13-12 edge. 
• The game was tied two more times before Gazzo connected with Mello for the game-winning goal with 2:13 remaining for the 15-14 win.  
• Mello tallied five goals and seven points, while McGhee added seven points and five ground balls.  Jessie Landers made eight saves between the pipes. 
• For Life, Arvizu tallied seven points, while Forbes and Sutton each netted a hat trick.  Leanne Windon made three caused turnovers as Arvizu scooped ten draw controls.
• Reinhardt advances to the semifinals against #1 Lawrence Tech Thursday, May 5, at 4 p.m. EST.