Two wins away: Women’s lacrosse heads for NCAA semifinals
Five seniors on the women’s lacrosse team graduated in a special ceremony earlier this week; days later, they punched their ticket to the NCAA semifinals
Photo courtesy of Gettysburg College
By Benjamin Pontz, News Editor
The wins just keep on coming for the Gettysburg College women’s lacrosse team.
Days after their five seniors graduated in a special ceremony, the Bullets picked up their 19th win of the season in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Lacrosse tournament at Clark Field in Gettysburg, and, now, they head for the national semifinals in Roanoke against Trinity College (from Connecticut). The winner of that matchup will play the winner of a semifinal tilt between The College of New Jersey, to whom the Bullets lost 7-6 in March, and Washington & Lee, whom the Bullets defeated 11-4 also in March.
On top of it all, Carol Cantele, a member of the Gettysburg class of 1983 who has served as the women’s lacrosse coach for the past 25 years, became just the fourth coach in the history of collegiate women’s lacrosse to amass 400 wins as the Bullets defeated Salisbury earlier this weekend.
“It was a great memory that will stay with me forever and I can’t think of a more engaging and fun-loving group to share it with,” Cantele told GettysburgSports.com. “But it’s everybody’s victory. I’m really honored to be holding it, but there are a lot of people that are a part of it as well.”
For their part, the seniors are living the dream and hoping that their journey ends in triumph next weekend with a national championship, which would be the second in program history; the 2011 women’s lacrosse team brought home the first national title in school history.
“I can’t even contain my excitement,” senior Shannon Keeler said to GettysburgSports.com. “As seniors we’ve been so close for three years and to finally be able to do it is a dream come true.”
The semifinals will be held next weekend; game times will be announced Monday.
