With 3 minutes, 31 seconds to play in the regular season, an unassisted goal from Kelli Warmouth guaranteed the Skyhawks another game.
Fort Lewis College and Westminster College were tied in Friday’s women’s lacrosse match for nearly nine minutes after Katie Adams of Westminster netted her 38th goal of the season with 11:30 to play at Dumke Field in Salt Lake City. In a furious battle between the fourth- and fifth-place teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Warmouth’s goal, her 32nd of the season and second of the game, helped FLC hold onto fourth place in the final RMAC standings going into next week’s RMAC Tournament.
At 15-0 and 8-0 in the RMAC, second-ranked Lindenwood will be the top-seed in the tournament. Lindenwood will finish it’s regular season at Oklahoma Baptist at 1 p.m. Saturday.
No. 11 Regis (13-3, 8-1 RMAC) will have the second seed to earn the other first-round bye.
Colorado Mesa (11-3, 7-2 RMAC) will hold the third seed followed by FLC. The RMAC Tournament has expanded two six teams as the conference has grown. Westminster (5-6, 4-4 RMAC) will get in as the fifth seed and will rematch FLC in the first round. Colorado Mesa will meet sixth seed Rockhurst (8-6, 4-5 RMAC) in the first round. Westminster and Rockhurst could still tie in the standings, but Westminster owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.
In Friday’s game, FLC went down 5-3 in the first half when the Griffins took advantage of FLC playing a woman down after penalties drew yellow cards. The Skyhawks narrowed the deficit to 6-5 before halftime, as Regan Olson scored the final goal of the half.
An FLC run of four consecutive goals early in the second half was key, as Warmouth got it going with a goal with 25:42 to play. Taylor Cabrera and Olson added goals of their own, and Cabrera added another to end the run with FLC playing a woman up because of a Westminster penalty.
Westminster answered back with a goal from Madison Ingman and another from Adams to tie the match at 9-all before Warmouth’s winner.
Cabrera led the match with five goals. Brooke Galle also had one goal for FLC.
Ashley Muckway led FLC with 11 groundballs, and Warmouth added seven. FLC won 48 groundballs to 37 for Westminster. Warmouth also was key in draw controls with 10 wins.
Daris Wienk was the winning goalkeeper for FLC. She made 10 saves. Mikala Anderson made 17 saves for Westminster.
FLC and Westminster will meet again Thursday in the RMAC Tournament.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
