Posted: Apr 30, 2014
BEREA, Ohio – Freshman midfielder Maddie Russell (Lakewood/ Rocky River) scored a career-high-tying five goals as the second-seeded Baldwin Wallace University women's lacrosse team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference rival and third-seeded Otterbein University 14-13, tonight in an OAC Tournament semifinal game at The George Finnie Stadium. The Yellow Jackets advance to play the winner of the top-seeded University of Mount Union versus fourth-seeded Capital University in the OAC Championship Game this Saturday, May 3.
With its win, BW is 14-3 overall and has a school-record 14 wins. With its loss, Otterbein ends its season at 12-5 overall.
In addition to Russell for Yellow Jackets, freshman midfielder Sierra Thomas (Medina/ Senior) and junior midfielder Cara Wood (Shaker Heights/ Laurel ) each had three goals and senior attack Colleen Bodkin (East Aurora, N.Y./ East Aurora) had two goals. Freshman midfielder Katie Kocher (Rocky River) had a pair of assists..
Otterbein was led by Yory Blatt with five goals and both Morgan Hunsacker and Courtney Hilfinger each had three.
Otterbein took a 3-0 lead at 16:47 in the first half before Thomas scored her first goal of the game at 12:49 via an assist from Wood to cut the deficit to 3-1. After a Cardinal goal made it 4-1, Thomas scored her second of the contest at 12:04 via an assist from Kocher to make it 4-2. Russell closed the gap to 4-3 when she scored off a free position situation at 10:31.
The Yellow Jackets continued their pressure and tied the game at 4-4 with four minutes left before halftime when Wood scored off a free position situation. BW took its first lead at 5-4 at 1:33 when Russell scored her second goal of the game, and Bodkin made it 6-4 at 1:05 when she scored off a free position situation. The Jackets gained a 7-4 lead at the intermission when Russell scored her third goal of the game via an assist from Kocher as time expired.
BW extended its lead to 8-4 at 27:06 when Thomas had her third goal of the game and freshman attack Kelsey Johnson (Carmel, Ind./ Park Tudor) made it 9-4 at 26:13 via an assist from junior attack Victoria Budzyn (East Aurora, N.Y./ East Aurora). Otterbein ended the streak of eight straight BW goals when the Cardinals scored at 25:13 and again at 24:19 to close the gap to 9-6.
Undaunted, Russell pushed BW's lead to 10-6 eighteen seconds later when she scored her fourth goal of the game via an assist from Kelsey Johnson at 24:01, and Wood scored her second of the contest to made it 11-6 at 23:40. Bodkin advanced the lead to 12-6 at 21:47 when she scored her second of the game via an assist from Thomas.
Otterbein came right back and made it a 12-8 score at 16:31 when it scored back-to-back goals. Wood countered with her third goal of the night, a man-up goal, at 13:51 to make it 13-8, but the Cardinals scored again at 10:07 to trail by four at 13-9 and at 7:27 to to make it 13-10.
Russell scored her fifth goal of the game at 7:27 off a free position situation to push BW's lead back to four at 14-10. Another Cardinal goal at 4:59 caused BW to call timeout. The Cardinals, who scored four straight goals against BW earlier this season to win, 14-13 in Westerville, closed to within 14-12 on a Blatt goal at 2:31.
Otterbein made it a 14-13 game at 1:23 when Blatt scored again.
In goal for BW, senior Bridget Walsh (Sheffield Lake/ Elyria Catholic) played 32:31 minutes, allowed five goals and made five saves. Walsh exited at halftime and freshman Gabrielle Nondorf (Indianapolis, Ind./ Bishop Chatard) entered the game. She played 27:29, allowed eight goals and made six saves before Walsh returned to the game.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
