For immediate release – 3/14/2015 - #320
Lynchburg Drops Battle of Hornets in Closing Seconds

WINCHESTER, VA – Liz Bereit scored her fifth goal of the game for Shenandoah University with 15 seconds left to defeat the Lynchburg College women's lacrosse team in Old Dominion Athletic Conference Action (ODAC) on Saturday.

The Hornets stormed out to a 3-1 lead in just the first five minutes of the game.  Caroline Carozza scored the opener less than a minute in, and Katherine Francis added to it soon after.  Bereit started her day off notching a free-position goal with 26:15 on the clock.  Carozza added her second shortly after as LC went up two goals.

However, at this point, Shenandoah took control of the game.  SU scored four goals in a row, until Carozza finished her hat trick off at 10:01 off a pass from Grace Finnerty, to put the Hornets from Lynchburg down by only one.  Bereit then scored while LC was down a player, to go up two.

LC responded with its own run, as Francis tied the game with two free position shots right before the half.

Bereit took the lead back 52 seconds after the intermission.  Her free position shot gave the Shenandoah Hornets a lead once again in the back and forth battle.  But as happened previously, Lynchburg responded.  Carozza hit Alexa Carey for her first on the day to tie the score at seven all.

With 15:55, Maddie Koontz scored her first of the day to give LC back the lead at 8-7.  Carozza made the feed to Koontz who sent it into the back of the net.

Lynchburg held a two-goal lead after Katie Seidel scored just before the halfway mark of the second half.  With 12:11 left on the clock, SU cut the lead to one.  With just over four minutes remaining, Annie McCorry hit Cortney Gensemer with pass that she connected on to tie the game at nine all.

The game was looking like an extra session would be needed, but Bereit ended that discussion with a quarter of a minute remaining.  LC called a timeout, but could not pull in the ensuing draw control, sealing the Lynchburg Hornets' fate.

Carozza set a career-high in points with five (three goals and two assists).  Finnerty scooped up a game-high four groundballs and pulled in two draw controls in the loss.  Rachel Levy made 13 saves in the win for Shenandoah (5-1 overall, 1-0 ODAC).

After spending Spring Break on the road, Lynchburg (2-3, 0-1) returns home on Wednesday for another ODAC contest.  The Hornets host Virginia Wesleyan College (3-2) at 5 p.m.

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