April 18, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's lacrosse team hits the road this weekend for its final Patriot League regular-season game with a 1:00 pm battle at Lafayette on Saturday. The Mids have already wrapped up a Patriot League Tournament berth and own an 11-3 overall record and a 3-2 mark in Patriot League play. Lafayette enters with a 2-14 record and is 0-5 in Patriot League play.

The game is an important one for tournament seeding purposes. Colgate and American will battle this weekend for the right to host the tournament on April 25-27. A Colgate win, a Navy win and a Lehigh loss at Bucknell would give the Mids the No. 2 seed with the tournament being at Colgate. An American win, a Navy win and a Lehigh win would give Navy the No. 4 seed with the tournament being at American. For Navy to get the No. 3 seed, it would need an American win, a Navy win and a Lehigh loss. A Navy loss sends the Mids to the No. 4 seed no matter what happens in the two other games this weekend.

The Mids have won three games in a row and sport an 11-3 mark entering the weekend. Navy needs just one more win to match the NCAA record for wins by a first-year program, tying the 1996 North Carolina team that had 12 victories. Navy has defeated American, Holy Cross and Bucknell in league play by a combined nine goals. The wins over Holy Cross and American gave Navy victories over the top two teams in the preseason, while Navy has exceeded its preseason expectations as the Midshipmen were picked fifth in the same poll.

Navy is searching for its first road win of the season after finishing their home campaign with an 11-0 record. Navy is 0-3 on the road, losing the three contests by an average of 5.7 goals per game. Navy has given up at least 15 goals in all three road contests this year.

The Mids are coming off a hard-fought 17-14 victory over Robert Morris on Wednesday in Annapolis. Meg Decker tied a career high with six goals, while Mary Ruttum and Erin Rawlick added five and four points, respectively. Navy needed a five-goal run in second half to rally from a two-goal deficit with 15 minutes to play to secure its perfect home record.

Rawlick, a sophomore midfielder, and Decker, a freshman midfielder, continue to lead the Mids in scoring. Both players reached the 50-goal plateau in the win over Robert Morris, as Rawlick now has 52 goals and 22 assists for 74 points. Decker has 50 goals and 12 assists for 62 points.

Rawlick ranks fifth nationally in points with 74, but is second in the country in points per game at 5.28 per game. She and Decker, who is third nationally among freshmen in scoring, are one of two duos nationally (Syracuse's Katie Rowan and Christina Dove) to record 50 goals each.

Senior Amanda Towey has 48 points (19 g, 29 a) and is among the nation's leaders in assists with 29. Ruttum has contributed 43 points (28 g, 15 a), while freshman Katrina Nietsch, the reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Week, has 37 points (32 g, 5 a).

Natalie Blandon has started all 14 games in goal for the Midshipmen, recording a 10.37 GAA and a .424 save percentage.

As a team, the Mids are among the national leaders in scoring offense (16.29 goals per game), scoring margin (+6.18) and draw controls per game (16.50).

Lafayette is coming off back-to-back home wins over Central Connecticut State (19-8) and Villanova (13-12 in 3 OT), and boasts one of the league's top players in senior Maddy Booth. Booth has scored 76 points (37 g, 39 a) to lead the Patriot League in scoring. She is aided by Kristin Ruminski with 34 points (25 g, 9 a) and Maria Drehwing (23 g, 6 a). Emily Bjork has played most of the time in goal, recording a 16.88 GAA and a .305 save percentage.

As a team, Lafayette is getting outscored by over six goals a game (16.27 to 10.18) and outshot by 5.4 shots per game. The Leopards are also just 18-of-59 on free-position attempts, while opponents are 41-of-69.

The Mids will wrap up their regular-season with a Tuesday night tilt at Villanova, beginning at 6:00 pm. Navy will then play its first Patriot League Tournament game in school history next Friday at either Colgate or American against a foe to be determined.

# GO NAVY #