MOUNT BERRY, Ga. -
Dani Taraska had seven points and
Kristina Jones tied her career-high in saves with 17 as Berry secured a spot in the final round of the Southern Athletic Association Women's Lacrosse Championship with a 14-10 win over the University of the South Sunday afternoon at Valhalla Stadium.
"We did what we needed to do to pull out a win," said Berry head coach Brittni Jones, who saw her program reach the finals of the SAA Championship for just the second time and the first under her guidance. "We knew what we would have to face. Sewanee is a tough team and they played really well today. Thankfully we got ahead, stayed ahead, and made the adjustments we needed to make to end up winning."
Taraska, who tied her season-high in points, started the scoring less than a minute into the contest. While Berry led 2-0 after the first of three from
Chloe Pender, Sewanee (10-9) came back to tie the score with just over eight minutes gone in the quarter. That would be the last time the game would be tied, as Taraska assisted
AnnaKate Estock for a tally, then the freshman scored her second of the game off a feed from
Molley Cross to make it 4-2. "I knew I needed to come in with high energy and keep my composure," Taraska said. "Sewanee is a really good team, and I knew I needed to try and hype up my team."
Sewanee's Marlin Price would score before the end of the first quarter to make it a 4-3 game, but the Vikings (14-3) leapt out to a four-goal advantage thanks to three consecutive tallies to start the second quarter. Pender started the run by finishing a feed from Taraska, then Taraska got open off a pass from Cross to keep the momentum with the team in white. Cross would close out the run with a goal with 5:03 left in the quarter as the Vikings led 7-3.
Jaden Russell kept the lead at four with 11 seconds to go by converting on a free-position shot, making it 8-4 at halftime.
The Vikings held a 9-6 lead heading to the fourth, with Sewanee's defense pressuring the Vikings throughout the latter stages of the third. The game turned at the start of the fourth, however, as
Abby Sprayberry picked up the opening draw control and Taraska deposited it into the back of the net to re-establish a four-goal cushion just 14 seconds in. Sprayberry would pick up the next draw control, with
Haley Larsen netting her second goal of the game 74 seconds into the final quarter to bump the lead to five.
From there, Berry wouldn't be seriously challenged again. Cross, Pender, and Larsen each scored for Berry to get the lead up to six before the Tigers scored two in the final 1:44 to acount for the final score.
Through it all, Jones morphed into a brick wall for the Vikings. The Decatur native had 10 save in the second half alone and helped to keep Sewanee to just 5-of-15 on free-position attempts. "I think seeing Sewanee before and knowing what they're capable of, I knew I needed to make sure I was staying on top of things and communicating with the defense," Jones said. "As a whole, we knew what we needed to do to change things around when things aren't going our way and just good communication all around helped us out a lot today."
Berry will now travel to Memphis, Tenn., for next weekend's SAA Championship after Rhodes defeated Oglethorpe 23-5. "Rhodes is tough competition," coach Hall said. "They haven't lost in something like 38 SAA games or something like that. The first time up, I felt we were a little intimidated because it's always a little tough, especially for freshmen, to hear all this about Rhodes. But now that we've seen them once, we've seen they make just as many mistakes as we do, but they play a game that we can stay in. I feel like we'll be going in with a whole new mindset to train hard this week."
The championship game is scheduled for Apr. 30 at 12:00 p.m. EDT, but is subject to change due to the game being contested in the Central Time Zone.
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