Waltham, Mass. – Bentley advanced to the finals of the Northeast-10 Women's Lacrosse Championships with a 13-10 victory over Saint Anselm on Thursday night in the finals of the Northeast Division side of the bracket.

The Falcons, the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Division, will host Adelphi on Sunday in the championship game. The Panthers are the No. 3 seed out of the Southwest and knocked off the division's top seed Le Moyne earlier in the day.

Bentley, now with an 11-2 record on the season, will add this finals appearance after winning the NE10 Northeast Division regular season title.

Bentley mostly dominated the first half against Saint Anselm, the No. 2 seed in the Northeast, and led 8-3 at halftime. Senior Cara McCarthy (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) had a hat trick in the first half and goalie Eliza Bresler (Newton, Mass./Newton North) made seven saves.

But Saint Anselm came out a different team after the halftime intermission. They scored six straight goals over the first 13-plus minutes of the 2^nd half to come all the way back and take a 9-8 lead.

Bentley finally got on the board in the 2^nd half with a free-position goal by junior Glenna Gies (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) to tie the game 9-9. Saint Anselm answered back with a free-position goal by Jenna Balboni to take a 10-9 lead with 11:43 remaining.

But that would be the Hawks' final goal of the game, and Bentley took advantage of its free-position opportunities to take the lead back.

Gies converted with 9:34 left to tie the game 10-10. Just 18 seconds later, Julia Glavin (Ipswich, Mass./Ipswich) scored a free-position and Bentley had the lead back 11-10.

After four minutes with no goals, Bentley scored two more goals in quick succession. Glavin a free-position at the 5:55 mark and McCarthy an unassisted goal with 5:03 remaining to give the Falcons a 13-10 lead.

Meanwhile Bentley's defense clamped down. After Balboni's goal, they didn't allow a single shot on goal the rest of the game.

The win was punctuated by Bresler causing a turnover in the final seconds on Saint Anselm's final possession. She finished the game with nine saves.

McCarthy led the offense with four goals. Midfielder Christine Fish (Slingerlands, N.Y./Guilderland) had a game-high three caused turnovers.

Bentley will be making its third appearance in the NE10 finals on Sunday and first since 2007.