WASHINGTON, Pa. – The top-seeded Washington & Jefferson women's lacrosse team used a strong second half to pull away for a 14-7 victory over fourth-seeded Chatham University in the semifinals of the 2024 Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Thursday evening at Alexandre Stadium.
W&J improves to 11-6 overall with their 11th-straight victory. The Cougars' season ends with a 10-8 overall record.
The Presidents will face third-seeded Grove City in Saturday's finals. The Wolverines picked up their second win of the week. Grove City edged second-seeded Allegheny by a 14-13 score in overtime Thursday evening in Meadville.
Saturday's will mark the eighth-straight season that W&J has advanced to its conference championship game. W&J holds a 5-2 record in those previous seven title tilts.
The two teams battled through a back-and-forth first half. W&J would score first in the contest as
Anna Kloehn (Canton, Ohio/Jackson) slipped towards the net and found the back of the net off of a quick, well-placed pass from
Sofia Jenkins (Hughesville, Md./The Calverton School) at the 10:47 mark of the first quarter.
Chatham answered with a goal of their own at the 9:05 mark to tie things up 1-1. The score remained evened up for more than seven minutes before the Cougars took a 2-1 lead at 1:57. Jenkins won the ensuing draw and set W&J in position to answer back.
Caleigh Bogats (Oakdale, Pa./Chartiers Valley) scored off an assist from senior
Emily Heck (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) at the 1:18 mark. After a low-scoring defensive first quarter, both teams tallied a goal in the final 12 seconds of the frame.
Chatham took a 3-2 lead off a goal with just 13 seconds remaining in the quarter. However, the Presidents flashed some resiliency in taking advantage of a short clock to even the score. Bogats won the draw and tossed a pass ahead to Jenkins who found Heck to beat the goalie one-on-one and even the score after 15 minutes of play.
The Cougars score at the 14:35 mark then once more at the 9:55 mark to push in front by a 5-3 score. The Presidents would once again showcase their buoyancy four-straight goals. Back-to-back scores by Jenkins and
Aisa Uhler (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) evened the score at 5-5 with 8:37 remaining before the break.
Bogats, who had the hot hand Thursday, scored a pair of goals just 53 seconds apart to help W&J take a 7-5 advantage. Jenkins assisted on both Bogats scores.
Both teams would score once more to head into the second half with a score of 8-6. Uhler would net an unassisted goal for W&J with 1:41 left before halftime.
W&J pulled away over the final 30 minutes. The Presidents scored three times in the third and three more in the fourth as they outscored the Cougars by a 6-1 margin in the second half.
Bogats netted her fourth goal of the game. She opened the third quarter scoring with an unassisted tally at the 13:14 mark. Chatham cut the deficit to 9-7 less than five minutes later when Bailey Donofrio scored with 9:23 left in the third.
Kloehn tacked on an unassisted goal (6:17) before
Mya Bolinda (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) scored a player-up goal off a pass from Jenkins (2:55) to help W&J carry a four-goal cushion into the final 15 minutes.
Despite being a player down, W&J made it a five goal lead with a score by Uhler at the 12:10 mark of the fourth. Uhler was able to outwork the Cougars' defense in picking up a loose ball, avoid stepping out of bounds before cutting in front to the net and finishing past the Cougars' goalkeeper. Uhler notched another unassisted score, her 58th goal of the season, swelled the lead to six at 13-7 with 8:15 left.
Brynne Stewart (Painesville, Ohio/Andrews Osbourne Academy) joined the scoring column with 4:49 left. The sophomore finished in front of the net after receiving a perfect pass from Jenkins.
Bogats and Uhler matched the game high with four goals apiece. Bogats also chipped in two caused turnovers and two draw controls.
Jenkins, W&J's all-time leader in assists, added six more in Thursday's win. Jenkins added a goal, three ground balls and five draw controls.
Kloehn scored twice, won two draws and caused a turnover. Bolinda pulled in a team-best six draw controls.
Ella Phillips (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) had five ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Kaitlyn Brown (Charlotte Hall, Md./La Plata) made six saves over 60 minutes in goal.
W&J out-shot Chatham by a 27-22 margin (20-13 shots on goal). Both teams had 19 successful clears. W&J doubled up Chatham in draw controls (16-8) and held a more narrow 21-17 advantage in ground balls.
Up Next: The Presidents and Wolverines will match up in the PAC Championship Tournament for a third-straight year. The Presidents downed the Wolverines in the 2022 title game by a 13-5 score. W&J used a pair of fourth quarter goals to claim a 9-8 win over Grove City in last year's semifinals.
