Third-quarter run catapults Siena women to MAAC semifinals

LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Finding a way to win when challenges are ubiquitous and the opposition is executing a sound game plan can reveal a lot about a team’s character.

The Siena women’s lacrosse team found solutions to those challenges and showed a gutsy performance in a physical MAAC opening round matchup that resulted in a 9-6 victory for the third-seeded Saints over No. 6 Canisius on Sunday afternoon at Hickey Field.

Siena (13-5) advances to the MAAC Semifinals this Friday 3 p.m. against No. 2 Niagara at top-seed Fairfield on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium in Fairfield, CT 

With the win, the Saints earned a single-season program record for most wins in a season with 13 under first-year head coach Danielle Schwan-Tetreault. 

It also reached the MAAC Semis for a fifth consecutive season dating back to 2019. 

But it wasn’t anything, but easy. 

Through the first two and a half quarters, the Golden Griffins (11-7) had played the game into their hands with quick-moving slides on defense and an aggressive unit that accumulated 22 fouls including three yellow cards. 

Canisius had held the Saints, a team that entered having averaged over 12 goals per game, to just three goals up until that point in the game. 

Then, the Saints began to find their openings as freshman Elizabeth Wamp converted her free position attempt for a player-up goal at the 9:19 mark of the third quarter.

It set off a string of five consecutive goals by the Saints, who also received a pickup from Taryn Asselin, who scored unassisted, to tie it 5-5 with 6:53 left.

A go-ahead goal by another underclassman Kylie Kuhn gave the Saints the lead just 29 seconds later.  Then, it was Asselin who found the back of the net on a feed from Sarah Irish to make it a 7-5 Saints with 4:39 left causing Canisius to call a time-out.

Kelly Logue rifled in a huge insurance goal just before the buzzer sounded to provide Siena with a three-goal cushion headed into the final frame. 

Siena outscored Canisius 5-2 in the decisive third quarter. 

The teams tightened up their defense in the fourth quarter with each team scoring just once in the quarter.    

The Golden Griffins’ Hailey Rooney scored at the 13:21 mark, but the Saints’ defense buckled down over the last 13-plus minutes to not allow a goal. 

It marked the sixth time this season that the Saints allowed six or fewer goals in a game. 

Sabrina Krasner made seven saves including one sequence where the graduate student made three saves on one Canisius possession.  She also kept Canisius off the board on their free position attempts, going 0 for 3 against the netminder. 

Draw controls went strongly in favor of the Saints as well with Siena earning a 14-5 advantage. 

Asselin, who leads the MAAC in draw controls, finished with a team-high seven draw controls while Mikayla Cooke added five and Laura Bonomo had two.

Cooke played a versatile role on the day, also picking up three ground balls and causing two turnovers. 

Seven different Siena players scored, but no player had more than two goals in the game as it was a collective team effort.