The St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse team had its season ended on Saturday,
as the Cardinals dropped a 20-18 decision to Tufts University in the Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Division III Championship, hosted by Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.
The Cardinals, who trailed by as many as eight goals midway through the second half, ended the game with 9-3 run, including two goals in the final 40 seconds.
Fisher's Vicki Sahm stopped 16 shots, while defender Andrea Gunsalus caused three turnovers.
While the two teams combined for 38 goals, the contest was scoreless for the first nine minutes, as Sahm stopped four shots, all of which came from point-blank range.
Tufts took a 2-0 lead, before Merriam made it 2-1. The sophomore curled around a screen and ripped a shot past the Jumbos' goalie from the right side with 16:54 left.
Tufts scored the next goal to take a 3-1 lead, but the Cardinals went on a 3-0 run to take 4-3 advance with 7:57 left on a goal from Springett. Clare started the spurt with her 38th goal of the year with 14:13 left in the half, and TScudder tied the game at 3-3 just 50 seconds after.
The Jumbos answered with their own 3-0 run and lead 6-4 with 4:05 left, before Glavin made it 6-5 less than one minute later.
Tufts began to pull away, however, late in the first half. The Jumbos scored with 1:47 left in the half to take a 7-5 lead, and after Glavin was sent off for three minutes with a yellow card with 33 seconds remaining in the opening half, Tufts scored two goals in the final 30 seconds to take a 9-5 lead at the break.
With Glavin off the field, Tuft scored three goals in the opening 2:27 of the second half to take a 12-5 lead, capping a 6-0 run by the Jumbos.
The Cardinals, however, did not go away Tufts led by as many as eight goals and 17-9 with 13:19 left, but Fisher scored the next four goals – all of which came in a 1:18 span.
Merriam scored two goals during the run, while Stimson made it in 17-13 with 10:53 left.
Fisher cut the margin to four goals on three different occasions over the final 10 minutes and pulled to within three goals with 40 seconds left on a goal from Clare. Fisher won the ensuing draw and Scudder scored with 28.6 second left making in 20-18, but the Cardinals never regained possession.
