PITTSFORD, N.Y. – A decade of dominance continued on Sunday for the top-seeded St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse team as the Cardinals claimed their 10th consecutive Empire 8 Championship after defeating second-seeded Nazareth College, 12-7, inside Growney Stadium.  With the win, Fisher, which earned the conference's automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division III Championship, improved to 10-8 on the year while the Golden Flyers had their season ended at 8-10.

The Cardinals will now await word on where and whom they'll face in the opening round of the NCAA Championship.  The selection show will air at 10:30 a.m. on Monday and can be watched by visiting ncaa.com.
  
Freshman Sydney Carpenter was named the championship's Most Valuable Player after producing three points including a goal and two assists to go along with seven draw controls and a ground ball.  Bianca Giacona, Mary Fiorentino and Kathleen Salanger were the driving forces behind Fisher's offense as the trio scored three goals each in the win while Courtney O'Dea was the top facilitator with three assists in all.  Farrah Zalla scored twice for Fisher while Alexandra Strollo and Shannon Foster combined to force three turnovers and corral 11 draw controls.

After struggling to generate much offense over the first 30 minutes of play, the Cardinals made all the right adjustments to begin the third quarter as Salanger and Fiorentino scored back-to-back goals in a span of 2:35 to knot the game at four goals aside.

With momentum on its side, Fisher continued to hammer the Golden Flyers' back line with Zalla scoring two quick goals as part of a larger 6-1 run that made it 8-5 in the home team's favor with 15 minutes remaining in the game.

As the fourth quarter got underway, Carpenter won the opening draw before the ball found its way behind the cage to Salanger who weaved her way through the defense before dumping it off into the back of the goal to make it a four-goal affair.

Trailing 9-5, Nazareth began to play with a renewed sense of urgency as the Golden Flyers scored two unanswered tallies to pull to within two midway through the period, but Fisher settled into a rhythm and countered with two goals in 64 seconds to grow its lead back to four with under six minutes to go.

From there, Nazareth looked to push the pace, but the Cardinals' defense forced its opponent into three key turnovers down the stretch before Fiorentino scored on an empty net to all but seal the team's 12th Empire 8 Championship overall.

Lilly Goodsell improved to 10-8 in goal for Fisher after the junior came away with five saves over 60 minutes.

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