NORFOLK, Virginia – Bailey Morris scored two goals in the final 2:24 to send South Florida to a 14-12 win against East Carolina Thursday in the semifinal round of the American Athletic Conference Women’s Lacrosse Championship at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex.
The Bulls, who are in their first season of Division I varsity competition, advance to the championship final of the American Championship for the first time. South Florida (13-4) will face top-seeded James Madison Saturday at noon ET for the conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
South Florida trailed 12-11 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Bulls scored the final three goals of the game and limited the Pirates to just one goal in the final 15 minutes. Kaitlyn Tartaglione tied the game at 12-12 with 5:19 left on a third-chance opportunity after Pirate goalie Jaime Behar had denied the Bulls on their first two shots of the possession.
Morris broke the 12-12 tie when she finished a roll dodge from the top of the arc with 2:24 left. She then won the ensuing draw and gave the Bulls a two-goal cushion when she raced across the top of the arc and fired a shot to the near side with 55 seconds remaining to make it 14-12.
East Carolina, which had seen each of its last four games decided by one goal, won the draw following Morris’ final goal, but Bulls goalie Paige Pagano denied Kayla Wilkes’ bid to bring the Pirates within one with 15 seconds left and South Florida was able to run out the clock.
South Florida was explosive out of the gate as the Bulls put eight goals on the board in the first quarter as Sofia Chepenik, Kali Cleary and Tartiglione all scored twice. But the Pirates used three first-quarter goals from Katelyn Sclafani to stay within striking range and make it 8-4 after 15 minutes.
Sclafani’s third goal, with 11 seconds left in the first period gave the Pirates momentum into the second quarter, and East Carolina used three goals from Erin Gulden and a strike by Rachel Chessock to the score at 8-8 going into halftime.
Gulden’s fourth goal of the game came early in the third quarter to give East Carolina its first lead of the game, 9-8. The Bulls ended their scoring drought with back-to-back goals midway through the third period to build a 10-9 lead when Maggie Newton buried a feed from Natalie Kelly.
Sclafani finished a crease roll off a feed from Gulden with 7:54 left to put East Carolina ahead 12-11, but that turned out to be the Pirates’ final goal before the Bulls mounted their comeback.
Morris and Tartaglione both had hat tricks for South Florida, while Chepenik, Cleary and Newton had two goals each. Pagano made three of her six saves in the fourth quarter to hold the Pirates to the single goal in the final period.
East Carolina (7-10) was led by Gulden, who finished with a game-high five goals with an assist. Sclafani added four goals for the Pirates, while Behar was outstanding in the cage with 15 saves.
South Florida and James Madison will meet for the second time in Saturday’s championship final. The Dukes took a 20-6 win against the Bulls April 19 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, as part of their current seven-game winning streak.