Box Score
Box Score

TROY, N.Y. – Sophomore midfielder Afton Marshall tallied a game-high six points to earn Most Outstanding Player honors and lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's lacrosse team to a 20-4 win over Cazenovia College in the ECAC Division III Upstate Championship game on Saturday. The Red Hawks close out the season with an 8-7 record while the Wildcats close out 2009 with an 11-4 mark.

Marshall (Windham, NH/Salem) helped the home team jump out to a 9-0 lead through the first 10 minutes of the opening half, scoring three goals and assisting on another. Senior Emily Donowick (West Seneca, NY/Nichols School) got things going just under two minutes into the contest and the Red Hawks continued to add to their lead as five different players scored for the nine-goal advantage.

Cazenovia's leading scorer Nicole Kimmel (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) halted RPI's scoring streak at 20:54 with her 60th tally of the season off a crisp pass from junior Courtney Caldwell (Black River, NY/Immaculate Heart), but RPI responded quickly.

Junior midfield Sam Fennessey (Gansevoort, NY/Saratoga Springs) scored the second of her two first-half goals with 17:05 remaining and Rensselaer posted seven goals through the final minutes for a 16-1 lead at the intermission.

The second half of action saw RPI take a 16-goal advantage (17-1) at 22:14, but the Wildcats answered minutes later as Caldwell connected off a pass from Kimmel to cut the deficit to 17-2 with just over 20 minutes remaining. Junior Theresa Squillante (Kings Park, NY/Kings Park) tallied the second of her two goals at 16:31 to push the Red Hawks advantage back to 16 goals and RPI scored twice more for a 20-2 lead with nine minutes left in the contest.

Cazenovia put on pressure late in the game as Kimmel added two goals, but that was as close as it would get for the Wildcats.

Rensselaer held the advantage in a number of categories in the game, including shots (31-9), ground balls (11-8) and draw controls (19-7). Leading the way offensively for the Red Hawks was Marshall, who posted three assists in addition to her three tallies. Sophomore Stephanie Caouette (Wynantskill, NY/Columbia) added three goals and two assists while Fennessey and junior Kathy Rogers (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) each added two goals and an assist.

Eight other players tallied either a goal or an assist for the Red Hawks, while junior netminder Ariana Hood (Severn, MD/Old Mill) picked up the win. Hood was forced to make just two saves in the first 30 minutes of action before giving way to rookie Muryum Khalid (Avon, CT/Miss Porter's), who made two saves in the second half.

For Cazenovia, Kimmel finished with three goals and an assist while Caldwell tallied a goal with two assists. In the Wildcats net, rookie Cari Dwinal (Laconia, NH/Laconia) made three saves.