Siena women's lacrosse falls in final 75 seconds of MAAC Semis

FAIRFIELD, CT (NEWS10) – After enduring an early four-goal deficit, Siena Women's Lacrosse spent 49 minutes and 27 seconds to get the score back even in large part to the heroic goal scoring of freshmen like Elizabeth Wamp, hustle plays from veterans like Laura Bonomo and clutch moments from big-game players like junior Kelly Logue. 

After each team put themselves in position for victory, it went back-and-forth in a defensive fourth quarter tussle with acrobatic saves from Purple Eagles goalkeeper Jordan Roy and Saints net minder Sabrina Krasner for over nine minutes of scoreless action.

Then, the conference's top sharpshooter this season—Andra Savage-gave Niagara the winning goal with 1:15 remaining to lift the Purple Eagles over the Saints 9-8 to advance to Sunday's MAAC Championship against top-seeded Fairfield. 

Siena (13-6) had done yeoman's work keeping Savage in check for over 58 minutes with no goals on the scoreboard. 

But the senior, who entered with 70 goals scored on the season (4.11 goals per game), fought her way through traffic to get a shot off and scored in the biggest moment to send Niagara (15-3) to its first MAAC title game since 2001.

For the Saints, it ends a historic season, in which it set several individual program records and raised the bar for the most wins in a single season with 13 under first-year head coach Danielle Schwan-Tetreault. 

Additionally, the Saints were playing without All-MAAC First Team selection Grace Dobrzynski, who was injured in Siena's 9-6 MAAC Quarterfinal win over Canisius this past Sunday.

The junior led the conference during the regular season in both assists (59) and points (83). 

Siena has reached at least the MAAC Semifinal Round or better in each of the past five completed seasons dating back to 2019 with MAAC Championship Game appearances in all of the odd years (2019, 2021 and 2023). 

The Saints fell to 4-6 all-time in the MAAC Tournament Semifinals Round.

Trailing 4-0 at the end of the first quarter, the Saints chipped away at the lead and pulled within two of the lead into the final frame. 

Logue felt the defender at her back and spun to get the equalizer at 8-8 with 10:33 remaining in the fourth quarter. 

Wamp continued her success against the Purple Eagles, securing her second hat trick against them and was a big reason why the Saints' fire was re-lit to get back into the game. 

Her goals with 53 seconds left in the third quarter and a player-up goal at 12:38 in the fourth quarter pulled Siena within 8-7. 

While Siena did win the draw controls battle 14-6, Niagara's high-powered offense got big lifts from Lexi Braniecki and Maddy Gill, who each scored three times.

The Purple Eagles entered with the MAAC's highest scoring offense on the season with 15.43 goals scored per game.