D-III Women's Rewind: Two Teams Have Shot at a Perfect Season

Championship weekend is set in NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse, and defending champion Middlebury and William Smith still have a chance to complete a perfect season.

Middlebury meets Franklin & Marshall in the first semifinal Friday at noon Eastern, and William Smith plays Gettysburg at 3 p.m. The Bullets were semifinalists last year, too, but lost to the Panthers en route to their championship.

Middlebury is playing in its fourth straight final four. William Smith advanced for the first time since 2003. Franklin & Marshall is in the semifinals for the first time since 2016.

The Panthers beat Colby in the quarterfinals to advance, while Gettysburg knocked out York, Franklin & Marshall beat Pomona-Pitzer and William Smith ousted 2022 runner-up Tufts.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from the past weekend of tournament action.

BIGGEST SURPRISES

There were two upsets in the third round, with No. 12 Colby beating No. 6 TCNJ and No. 9 Gettysburg beating No. 3 Washington and Lee, which had just one other loss this season (to York).

The Mules jumped out to a 6-1 lead over the Lions en route to a 14-9 win to advance to the quarters, where their run ended against Middlebury. Ally Franz finished with five goals and one assist to lead Colby’s attack against TCNJ, and Sarah Hearns made 11 saves.

Gettysburg used a 5-0 run to build a five-goal lead in the second quarter against Washington and Lee, and the Generals thrice pulled within two of the Bullets. However, unlike their March meeting when Gettysburg blew a lead for one of its four losses, the Bullets held on for the win. Julia Daly led with six goals.

The Bullets then routed York 17-8 in the next round to advance to the Final Four.

BEST GAME

William Smith’s 6-5 win over St. John Fisher in the Sweet 16 was the closest game of the weekend.

The game remained scoreless for more than nine minutes, but the Herons broke the deadlock on Maddie Montgomery’s 74th goal of the season with just under six minutes left in the first quarter. She then added another goal almost two minutes later, but the Cardinals got on the board before the end of the period to begin a 4-0 run over a quarter and a half.

That fourth goal for Fisher, which came with 7:57 left in the third period, accounted for the largest lead of the game at 4-2. Montgomery scored another two goals to tie the scorre, Allie McGinty tacked on the go-ahead score with 6:19 left (assisted by Montgomery), but St. John Fisher evened it up again on Sydney Carpenter’s second goal of the day with 3:35 remaining.

Montgomery’s fifth goal with 2:10 left stood as the winner.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

Montgomery contributed to all six of William Smith’s goals in the third-round win over St. John Fisher, including scoring the game-winner, and she also had a caused turnover in the closing seconds to seal the victory. She finished with five goals, one assist, a game-high five draw controls and three ground balls. The senior midfielder had another strong effort in a 14-4 win over Tufts, scoring four goals, assisting another and amassing seven draw controls.

Sidney Lowe also had five goals and one assist in Franklin & Marshall’s 18-13 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the Elite 8, and Lydia Cassilly chipped in six points on three goals and three assists.

Three other notable six-point performances included Daly’s six goals in Gettysburg’s win over W&L, Franz’s five goals and one assist for Colby in the win over TCNJ and Jordan Basso’s five goals and one assist for Gettysburg in a 17-8 win over York. Carolina Sullivan produced eight points in that win for the Bullets, finishing with two goals and six assists to go along with four ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Hearns had the best performance in goal over the weekend, amassing 11 saves to help preserve Colby’s win over TCNJ and finishing with 17 saves to give the Mules a chance against Middlebury in a 12-7 loss.

BY THE NUMBERS

34 – Middlebury massed 34 goals between its two games this weekend, including a 22-goal effort against Trinity (Conn.).

10 – William Smith has allowed just 10 goals over three games this tournament. St. John Fisher accounts for five of those and nearly matched the Herons’ defense in the low-scoring affair.

4 – Games decided by three goals or less. York beat Salisbury 12-10 in the Sweet 16 in addition to Gettysburg’s 11-8 win over Washington and Lee, Tufts’ 11-8 win over Wesleyan and William Smith’s 6-5 victory against St. John Fisher.

13 – The largest goal differential in games this weekend came in Middlebury’s 22-9 win over Trinity. The Panthers had also beaten Trinity by 13 goals in a regular-season matchup.

2 – York played three games decided by two goals this tournament, but the narrow margins of victory might have caught up to the Spartans, as they ended their run with a 17-8 loss to Gettysburg.