WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster women's lacrosse team decisively dispatched DePauw University 19-12 behind a strong second half in Wednesday's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal at John P. Papp Stadium.
Wooster, which tied its season record for wins at 16 (16-2), now plays in Saturday's conference tournament final at No. 20 Denison University (13-4). Opening draw at Kienzle-Hylbert Stadium is set for 1 p.m. Saturday marks the program's 15th time in the NCAC Tournament final, which dates back to 1994. Wooster is making its first appearance in the championship game since 2021 and is seeking its first tournament crown since 2010.
The regular season meeting saw Wooster and DePauw (7-9) go to overtime, where senior Kenzie Morris netted the game-winning goal. The teams were deadlocked again early before Wooster went on a 11-4 run that spanned the final 33:33 of the game. First-year Rowan Pilon connected with a cutting Sophia Mellis for the go-ahead goal that broke an 8-8 tie with 3:33 remaining in the second quarter.
The decisive stretch started when junior Bella Woodbury fired in one of her co-game-high five goals. That unassisted tally with 9:36 on the third-quarter clock started a 3-0 run that was part of a larger 7-1 stretch. Senior Madelyn Noll scored for a second time to cap the 7-1 scoring stretch and put Wooster up by seven with 4:55 to go in the game.
DePauw had nearly double the turnovers it had in the first half post-halftime. Senior Bella McCloskey put a stop to DePauw's first offensive chance in the third quarter, and that led to one of Mellis' co-game-high five goals with 13:20 on the clock.
Next, junior Lizzie Hardy did it all with a caused turnover to groundball sequence before Woodbury padded Wooster's lead back to two at 11-9. Hardy did likewise once a DePauw shot stopped by Wooster sophomore goalkeeper Audrey Richardson returned to the field of play and was cleaned up by the Tigers' Emerson Perea. Following Hardy's second caused turnover of the game, Mellis scored to make it 12-9.
Mellis and Woodbury's combined 10 goals were followed by first-year Mizan Jacobs' three. Jacobs, making collegiate start number two, had six points, thanks to passing out a team-leading three assists. Senior Ashlyn Casey scooped up five of Wooster's 24 groundballs, while Hardy followed with four. Senior Lexi Sarne's backline defensive play resulted in four caused turnovers. Junior Sidney O'Rourke added three in support of Sarne's team-high. O'Rourke had five of Wooster's 13 draw controls. Hardy and senior Kaitlyn McBride added four each. Richardson finished with seven saves.
Bridget Driscoll was DePauw's standout, winning 14 draw controls and scoring three times. Kate Sullivan led the Tigers in scoring at four goals and two assists. She added four draw controls to help DePauw to a 22-13 advantage.
Elsewhere, Wooster solved how to score on Niamh Callahan. The Tigers' goalkeeper only had nine saves, six fewer than the regular season meeting.
Wooster had 35 shots to DePauw's 27. Wooster limited the turnover miscues to just 14, which was a key to the win, as DePauw finished the night at 23.
Denison dominated Kenyon 21-11 in Wednesday's other semifinal. The Big Red outscored the Owls 11-3 in the second half.
