The NCAA Division III women's lacrosse tournament began today, and Wesleyan made its second visit a day of firsts.
The Cardinals, uncertain of returning to the dance with a 10-6 season, took control of No. 18 Messiah early and used a 4-0 run late to dispatch the Falcons, 13-10, in Rochester, N.Y., and earn the frist NCAA tournament win in school history. Abby Manning scored four goals and added an assist to lead Wesleyan, which will play Cardinals of a different feather — host and No. 8 St. John Fisher — tomorrow in the second round.
Wesleyan scored three consecutive goals on two occasions in the first half to jump out to a 6-2 lead. The Falcons, ranked No. 12 in the IWLCA coaches poll, eventually evened the game at 9 thanks to back-to-back goals by Annika Johnsen and Madi Morris about 10 minutes into the second half. Johnsen ultimately would finish with a hat trick.
From there, though, the Cardinals salted the contest away. Rylee White fed Allie Damren with 15:43 to play, then scored consecutive goals herself. Manning's fourth of the day essentially ended it, giving Wesleyan a 13-9 lead with just 5:46 left.
Wesleyan's win seemed narrow in comparison to results of nine other first-round games today, as the bracket narrowed to 32 teams in mostly decisive fashion. Six games were decided by double digits and two more, No. 15 Tufts' defeat of FDU-Florham and No. 11 Cortland's defeat of Plymouth State, came via identical 17-8 scores. Four teams ranked in this week's Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20 moved on easily.
Morrisville State battled Westfield State for about 15 minutes before the Owls pulled away to a six-goal lead at multiple points throughout their 17-12 win in Gettysburg, Pa. Alexa Tonelli had three goals and three assists to pace Westfield State, champion of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, to its second NCAA tournament victory. The Owls' reward is a second-round matchup with the defending national champion Bullets.
First-Round Scoreboard
No. 7 Washington & Lee 27, Cabrini 7
No. 11 Cortland 17, Plymouth State 8
No. 12 William Smith 18, Endicott 8
No. 15 Tufts 17, FDU-Florham 8
Wesleyan 13, No. 18 Messiah 10
Meredith 20, Merchant Marine 9
Springfield 24, Elms 3
Westfield State 17, Morrisville State 12
Babson 17, Castleton 4
Catholic 23, Johnson & Wales (R.I.) 10
One second-round game was played, and it matched the theme of the first round. Denison ran away from Calvin, 21-4, and only seemed slowed by two 50-minute lightning delays in securing a berth in next weekend's third round.
The Big Red got four goals from Kiely Noonan and multiple-point performances from several players. Jane Goodspeed extended her career program-record with 98 caused turnovers.
Sunday's games will determine partcipants in the round of 16 next Saturday (interactive bracket).