Women’s lacrosse failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament in large part due to their 15-5 loss to the Naval Academy in the Patriot League Championship on May 7. The loss is the team’s first ever Patriot League loss since they joined the league in 2013.

From the start of the game, Loyola was fighting themselves with sloppy turnovers, inconsistent defense, and losing starter Katrina Geiger ’17 to injury. Navy was able to dominate Loyola 22-10 in the shot department, while capitalizing on Loyola’s sloppy play by winning the ground ball margin 13-5. With more than nine minutes left to play in the first half, Loyola already faced its largest ever Patriot League deficit as the team trailed behind by five goals.

A major reason for Navy’s offensive explosion: going three for six on free-position shots.

Loyola trailed at half 7-2. The only scorers for Loyola were attackers Hannah Powers ’19 and Frankie Kamely, ’18 both with one tally. Navy produced six different goal scorers in the first half, namely attacker Meg O’Donnell ’19 with two.

The second half was more of the same story for Loyola: sloppy play, turnovers, and missed chances. The only difference was that they were pressing at every instance to eliminate the lead. Despite the Hounds’ strong efforts, though, Navy was able to extend their lead.

Loyola’s first score in the half came from attacker Cami Whiteford ’17 at the 23:23 mark, their first goal in over 15 minutes of game time (since 8:26 in the first half). The goal also marked her 24th straight game with a tally.

Navy was able to dominate the latest portion of the game, scoring four unanswered goals stretching from 13 minutes left to just over five minutes. In that time frame, three of the four goals were scored by the Collins sisters (two by midfielder Jenna Collins ’18, and one by attacker Julia Collins ’18). Jenna finished the Championship with four goals in the game, and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

There were 60 fouls called in the game, 35 were on Loyola while 25 were on the Naval Academy.

Loyola accumulated three yellow cards throughout the game, two cards by midfielder Emily Clark ’17 and one by midfielder Sabrina Tabasso ’18.

The win gives Navy its fifth Patriot League win and marks their fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, their first since 3013. Navy will play in Philadelphia at University of Pennsylvania on May 12.