PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The No. 10 St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse team punched their ticket to the Empire 8 Conference Championship on Friday afternoon at Growney Stadium as the tournament's top-seeded Cardinals proved why they're going for their ninth-straight tournament title in a 22-3 victory over the fourth-seeded Hartwick Hawks. With Fisher's eighth-straight win in Championship's semifinal round, the team improved to 13-1 on the season while the Hawks ended their season at 3-4 overall.
After storming out to an 8-0 lead in the game's first ten minutes, the Cardinals continued to dominate on the offensive half of the field, drilling 6 more goals into net before the end of the half and allowing just one goal scored as a result of a loose ground ball that slipped past the keeper.
In the first half alone, Alyssa Sproule scored four times, while Brittany Halpin, Mackenzie Alexander, and Logan Chase each netted two goals apiece.
Facing the second half's running clock, Fisher grabbed eight of the game's last ten goals scored including two more from Sproule and a pair of goals from Kathleen Salanger.
With six goals alone, Sproule led the offensive effort for the nationally-ranked Cardinals. Her effort was followed up by Salanger and Halpin who recorded hat tricks, and Sydney DeGirolamo, Chase, and Alexander who scored twice each. Rounding out the Fisher scoring were Cara Landry, Bianca Giacona, Courtney O'Dea, and Alexandra Kopcza, who shared the remaining four goals.
Nearly as impressive as the goal total was the passing display put on by the home squad, in which DeGirolamo, Salanger, and O'Dea dished out three dimes each, leading to a team-total 10 assists in the contest.
Fisher's success on the offensive end couldn't possibly be overlooked by its corresponding defensive effort. Of Hartwick's 12 clear attempts, the Cardinals forced its opponent into failure ten times and produced nine more turnovers throughout the remainder of the game for a total of 19 possession changes.
Claudia Mocciaro was dubbed the W between the pipes as the senior keeper faced just one shot in her 30-minute appearance.
The top-seeded Cardinals will now go on to defend their Empire 8 Championship for the ninth-straight time in Sunday's title game in which they will face No. 2 Nazareth on the Growney Stadium turf at noon.
