The University at Albany Great Danes left no doubt who is the best America East women’s lacrosse team.
NCAA Division I’s lone undefeated team built a 7-2 halftime lead and cruised to an 11-4 victory over Maryland-Baltimore County in Saturday’s America East Tournament championship game at John Fallon Field.
The win gave UAlbany (17-0) the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament the first in the program’s Division I history. The Great Danes received the No. 7 seed and a first-round game Sunday at Dartmouth.
We’re blazing a new trail, and we’re the first,` said UAlbany senior defender and Guilderland High School graduate Nikki Branchini. `We’re really excited.`
`I couldn’t be happier,` said senior attacker Jodi Battaglia, who led UAlbany with five goals and two assists. `We [seniors] have waited for four years to get there.`
The game was a rematch of the regular season finale, which UAlbany won 12-11. But unlike that game, the Great Danes never allowed UMBC to get close once they built their five-goal lead. Ball control was the key, as UAlbany possessed the ball for much of the game. The Retrievers went more than 46 minutes between goals at one point.
`I was happy with the pace of play,` said UAlbany coach John Battaglino. `We just needed to do a better job of managing the game and picking our spots [to take shots].`
UAlbany goaltender Anna Berman also played a role in shutting down UMBC. The freshman made three point-blank saves in the first half that swung the momentum in the Great Danes’ favor.
`I love looking back and seeing the ball in her stick,` Branchini said of Berman. `She’s a freshman, but she doesn’t play like a freshman.`
`The girls just picked up the momentum from those saves,` said Battaglino.
UMBC’s Amanda Pappas scored on a free-position shot with 18:15 left in the first half to tie the game at 2, but UAlbany ripped off five goals in a seven-minute time span after that to establish its 7-2 lead. Battaglia scored two of the five goals in that stretch ` receiving assists from Taylor Frink both times.
`We just find openings. There is no secret behind it,` said Battaglia of her on-field chemistry with Frink, who assisted on three of Battaglia’s five goals.
`Their timing was a bit off early on, and credit UMBC for that,` said Battaglino. `But they find a way.`
The Great Danes scored three more goals in the first eight minutes of the second half before settling into a pattern where they held the ball in UMBC’s half of the field and took only a handful of shots.
`We were still going to goal, but there was nothing forced about what we did,` said Battaglia.
UMBC ended its scoring drought with 2:10 left in the second half, but the Retrievers were hopelessly too far behind to make a comeback.
Ariana Parker and Rachael Burek each added a pair of goals for UAlbany, which held a 19-10 advantage in shots.
The Great Danes will now try to make a run in the NCAA tournament starting with Sunday’s game against a Dartmouth team that handed defending national champion Marlyand (18-1) its only loss of the season, a 9-8 double overtime game.
`I’ve coached a lot of great teams, and this one had to overcome a lot to get here,` said Battaglino, who coached Bethlehem to six straight Section II girls lacrosse titles . `We’ve had some injuries, but these girls stepped up.“
