The No. 15 Colorado College women's lacrosse team fought hard in the California heat. Still, it fell short 23-10 to No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon.
Senior
Kelsey Shankle and Sophomore
Charlotte Iler each racked up a hat trick, but the Sagehens dominated the second and third quarters for the eventual win.
Shankle scored first to put CC up 1-0 only 46 seconds into the contest after an assist from senior
Tobin Lonergan. Shankle finished the game with three goals off five shots and a draw control. Lonergan had a goal, an assist and a caused turnover.
Lonergan finishes her CC career third all-time in program history with 258 career points and 106 assists.
After Pomona answered three minutes later to knot the game up at 1-1, Iler scored her first goal with 10:12 remaining to put CC back on top. Iler had five shots and a ground ball. She finished the season with a team-high 61 goals, 25 assists and 15 hat tricks.
The Sagehens went down a woman with less than eight minutes remaining in the quarter but scored twice to take a 4-2 lead. The Tigers countered with goals from Iler and
Grace Bean with 22 seconds remaining to tie the game at 4-4 heading into the second.
In the second, Pomona went on its first big run of the afternoon, scoring five unanswered in the first few minutes of the quarter and led by four with 9:20 left in the half. CC countered right back with three-straight goals from Hankle, Lonergan and
Sofia Mancino and cut the lead down to 8-7 with 3:23 remaining.
P-P ended the half with a trio of goals to CC's one and led by three at the break.
With the lead, the Sagehens built on it in the third, scoring five unanswered before Iler found the net for the third time to make it 16-9.
Despite valiant efforts down the stretch from the Tigers, including Shankle, who completed her hat trick in the fourth quarter, CC fell 23-10 and ended one of its best seasons with an 18-4 record.
The 18 wins tied a program record for most in a single season. Head coach Susan "Stuey" Stuart ends her historic 30-year career with 331 wins, 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, and the title of "legend" in the women's lacrosse world.
Stuart ended her last season with one of the best winning percentages in program history, 10 all-conference selections and back-to-back NCAA Tournament selections.