Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

Box Score

HARTFORD, Conn. – Freshman attacker Caitlin Irvine (Westwood, Mass.) scored goals on all six of her shot attempts, including her fifth goal of the day on a breakaway that gave her team the lead for good at 9-8 in the second half, as third-seeded Trinity earned a 12-9 win over sixth-seeded Bowdoin in the first round of the 2008 NESCAC Women's Lacrosse Championship this afternoon on Sheppard Field. Trinity improves to 10-5 and advances to the NESCAC Semifinals against second-seeded Amherst next Saturday at Middlebury.

Bowdoin falls to 9-7. The win is the first ever for Trinity in the NESCAC Tournament.

Bowdoin scored first on an unassisted tally by senior tri-captain midfielder Bobbi Dennison (Freeport, Maine) 3:48 into the contest, but Trinity scored the next three goals including two by Irvine. The Bantams held a 5-3 lead late in the first half when sophomore Jenn Calver (Barnard, Vt.) won a draw and raced down the field for the final score of the first half with 55 seconds on the clock.

After Calver scored again from freshman midfielder Rachel Romanowsky (Hampstead, N.H.) 26 seconds into the second frame, Bowdoin rallied for five straight goals to take an 8-7 lead with 15:39 left on the clock. Polar Bear senior tri-captain midfielder Lyndsey Colburn (Concord, N.H.) tied the game 12:29 into the second half with a nice move from the right wing, and junior attacker Christina Denitzio (Martinsville, N.J.) gave the visitors the lead, picking up the ball after a close save by Trinity senior captain goalie Michelle Smith (Wayland, Mass.) and shooting quickly into the net before Smith could get her stick back up.

On the ensuing draw, Calver again ended up with the ball and passed up to Romanowsky for the game-tying score just 13 seconds later, and Irvine netted the go-ahead score with 11:41 on the clock. Bantam senior captain attacker C.J. Yanofsky (Needham, Mass.) scored her third goal of the game and Irvine added two more to increase the Trinity lead to 12-8, before Bowdoin finally stopped the run at five in a row with a goal by Denitzio with 5:12 left in the contest. Smith and the Bantam defensive front of senior captains Caroline Boiardi (Washington, D.C.) and Ellen Cohn (Springfield, Pa.), junior Kristina Scontras (Cape Elizabeth, Maine), and sophomore Lauren Peck (Newton, Mass.) held the Polar Bears scoreless the rest of the way.

Smith finished with 16 saves and Bowdoin junior goalie Steph Collins-Finn (Menands, N.Y.) stopped 10 shots, while Bowdoin outshot Trinity, 35-30. Freshman midfielder Katy Dissinger (Upper Brookville, N.Y.) joined Colburn and Denitzio with two goals for the Polar Bears, while Colburn and Dennison recorded the Bowdoin assists. Romanowsky had two helpers and freshman Alisen Urquhart (Redding, Conn.) added one to round out the Trinity scoring.