Preview: Bentley Faces Roberts Wesleyan on Sunday in NCAA East Region Final
The Bentley women's lacrosse team is one win away from the national semifinals. Standing in their way is the Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks. The two teams will meet on Sunday at 12:00 pm in the East Region final of the 2021 NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship. The game will take place on the campus of RWU in Rochester, N.Y.
Links to follow the game are below.
Bentley (12-2 record) is the No. 3 seed in the East Region and ranked 14th nationally. They advanced after Friday's scheduled game against No. 2 Mercy was declared a no contest. The Redhawks (13-1 record) are the East's No. 1 seed and ranked 15th nationally. This will be the first ever meeting between Bentley and RWU, which competes in the East Coast Conference.
Both Bentley and RWU, as first-time participants in the NCAA Tournament, will each be going for their first ever trip to the national semifinals.
The Falcons were selected to the NCAA Tournament after they stormed through the NE10 playoffs to claim the first NE10 Championship in program history. They beat six top-20 teams during the regular season. Assumption and Saint Anselm twice, Adelphi and New Haven.
They defeated Assumption 10-9 in double overtime in the NE10 division semifinals on May 3, then defeated Saint Anselm 13-10 in the division finals on May 6. Bentley then finished the job with a 9-8 victory over Adelphi in the finals last Sunday.
Graduate student goalie Eliza Bresler, the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, made nine saves in the championship game, including a save from a close range on Adelphi's final possession to preserve the lead.
Seniors Julia Glavin and Cara McCarthy were also named to the All-Tournament team. Glavin was Bentley's leading scorer with 13 points in the tournament (8 goals, 5 assists), and McCarthy had five goals and a team high 14 draw controls.
Bresler will enter the NCAAs with a sterling 12-2 record, a 7.60 goals against average and a .605 save percentage. She leads Division II in save percentage, has the 3rd most saves (158) and has the 7th best GAA. She was named the NE10 Northeast Division Goalie of the Year and first team All-Conference.
Glavin leads the team in both goals (42) and points (55) and senior Sandrine Heller paces the team in the assists category (14). McCarthy leads the team with 48 draw controls. Bresler is the team leader in ground balls (45) and senior Dana Lewandowski is the leader in caused turnovers (18).
RWU's resume this season features the ECC Championship, which they won on May 8 with a 10-9 victory over Mercy. The Redhawks went 2-1 on the season against Mercy, which handed them their only loss of the season so far on May 1, 12-6.
RWU also has a win over then-No. 8 ranked Grand Valley State on its resume, 12-9 on April 22.
They feature two major award winners in the ECC. Senior Lindsey Brinkel was named Attacker of the Year and sports a 31-52-83 scoring line. Senior Emily Tomei was the Midfielder of the Year and has a 46-14-60 scoring line. Junior Natalie Arieno is the starting goalie. She was named first team All-Conference and sports 8.10 GAA.
The winner of Sunday's game will advance to the national semifinals on Friday, May 21 against either West Chester of East Stroudsburg.
The national semifinals and finals are in Salem, Virginia. The NCAA Championship game will be on Sunday, May 23.