Dominican University of California Athletics

CHARLESTON, West Virginia.- Dominican women's lacrosse clinched their spot in the Mountain East Conference championship game Thursday afternoon as they defeated the Golden Eagles of UC Charleston 15-13 in the MEC semi-final game. This marks the second straight year that the Pengs have made it to their conference championship game, and the third straight victory over UC Charleston.

Olivia Johnson, Morgan Newkirk, and Elke Moerkeseth were honored before the game for being selected to the first-team All MEC.

The black and gold came out the gates strong as they needed no time to settle into this playoff matchup with the Golden Eagles. Ryan Bionda, the graduate student out of Ontario, got the first points of the game two minutes in when she received a nice dish from Stella Artukovich and finished it off with a missile past the goalie. The Pengs would then go on a 4-1 run in the first quarter spearheaded by junior Alayna Cipolla.

Cipolla, the Pennsylvania native who grew up a couple hours from Charleston, showed out all over the field for Dominican. She finished with three goals while also collecting a team high two assists and caused havoc on the defensive side of the ball forcing the Golden Eagles into multiple bad passes.

"Seeing how our defense and draw unit flying around making plays honestly made my job easy and I was able to get the looks on offense and score because of what they did," Cipolla said. "When I come back here to the area, I just feel at home, and it was great being able to see my mom and family knowing they're in the stands watching."

Kyra Evans, the sophomore out of San Diego, made her mark to begin the second quarter when she called her own number for the Pengs 6^th point of the game. Evans, who was selected to the second-team all MEC last week, also finished the game with three goals while scooping up a team high five groundballs.

Evans would collect two more goals midway through the second quarter, and then it was fellow San Diegan Stella Artukovich who capped off a strong first half for the black and gold as she scored with a minute left until halftime. Dominican would hold a 10-4 advantage as the clock hit zeros for intermission.

The Golden Eagles would come out for the third quarter on a mission as they started the second half going on a 4-0 run which cut the Pengs lead down to two. However, after a crucial timeout called by Joseph Manna, Dominican never lost their composure showing that this group is built for the playoffs.

They would halt the Golden Eagle's momentum by going on a run of their own started by Artukovich who found a lane and scored right when she received a sweet dish from Cipolla. Then it was the two Johnson's who found the back of the net, Olivia and Chelsea, to cap off a vital 3-0 run from the black and gold.

Johnson, the Washington native, was dominant once again in the draw department as she won a game high six while picking up five ground balls. She was also a force on the defensive side as she posted a game high five caused turnovers.

"I think our defense has found its groove the latter part of the season and it was clicking today, we just trust each other so much in whatever situation we're put in," Johnson said. "Being able to have us hit our peak right now is really good for our program. I don't think there's any other group of girls that I would want to finish my career at Dominican with and I think everyone's kind of under the impression that we need to play for as long as possible so that these seniors get what they deserve and what they came here for."

The Pengs as a team put the clamps on the Golden Eagles coming up with 16 caused turnovers. Katherine Chavez, the senior out of North Tustin, led the Pengs on the backend coming up with a game high five saves in the cage.

Cipolla would start the final quarter with her last goal of the game as she took a pass from Evans and fired one past the outstretched arms of the goalie for the Pengs 14^th point. Then the Pengs turned to their closer, Morgan Newkirk the San Diego native, to put the game away. Newkirk would call her own number with seven minutes remaining collecting her third goal of the game giving the Pengs their winning number of 15.

"At this point in the year, it's just about taking it one game, one moment and one play at a time. A big emphasis all week was playing "best shot" lacrosse, and today we did just that, head coach Joseph Manna said. "I'm really proud of our role players, they were the difference in the game shout out to Alayna Cipolla, Chelsea Johnson, and Megan Elgaaen. Hats off to UCWV, they had a heck of a season."

The Pengs will play the winner of Wheeling and Frostburg Sunday May 3rd at 1 p.m. EST