Top Seeds Advance to Men's and Women's IA Finals

ST LOUIS -- The top two seeds in both the men's and women's fields will meet in the championship games of the US Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates National Championships games on Saturday, May 10. In the women's field, Cal Poly will go for its third straight national title, but will have to get past archrival and top-seeded UCLA. In the men's field, Colorado State goes for its third title in the last five years, but meets the top-seed in the tourney, UC-Santa Barbara.

The women's tournament opened on Friday with both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds played in near 90 degree weather at the Anheuser-Busch Sports Centre. Top-seeded UCLA survived two tough battles to reach the championship. The Bruins beat Florida 11-8 in their opener and then got past Navy 14-12 in overtime. Cal Poly remained unbeaten during the three years of the IA championships by beating Pittsburgh 15-8 in the opening round and Michigan 13-4 in the semifinals. This sets the stage for the fourth meeting of the year between Cal Poly and UCLA. UCLA won two of the previous three meetings, including a 6-5 win in the championship game of the Western Women's Lacrosse League tournament on April 27.

In the men's semifinals, Colorado State beat defending champion Sonoma State 8-6 in a rematch of last year's championship game. Colorado State will be playing in its fifth straight championship game. The Rams won the tournament in 1999 and 2001. UC-Santa Barbara nipped two-time champion BYU 10-9 in the other semifinal to reach the championship game for the first time. UC-Santa Barbara is the fourth different California school to reach the finals in the event's seven-year history, joining Cal-Berkeley, Sonoma and Stanford.

Women's Summaries

First round games
#4 Navy 10, #5 Texas A&M 5
The first goal of the WDIA championship was scored by Navy's Liza Holmes when she sliced through Texas A&M's defense and found the back of the net at 3:50 mark of the game. Following Navy's initial score, Texas A&M came out running, and hit their first target at 11:17, when Michelynne Foster found WDIA First Team All-American Christina Pickett who quick-sticked in the Aggies first goal. A&M scored twice more as Molly Richardson dodged from the top of the arc through the teeth of Navy's defense and Anna Martin ran the length of the field to tally the third score. The first half ended with Texas A&M up 3-1.

While A&M's guns were loaded in the first half, Navy's were in the second period. Navy scored seven unanswered goals before A&M was able to answer. During this stretch Navy was led by WDIA First Team All-American Nicole Telesh (3 goals) and Liza Holmes who added two more. For the remainder of the game, the teams traded scores, but Texas A&M never recovered from Navy's 7-goal onslaught.

#1 UCLA 11, #8 Florida 8
Florida dominated the early part of its match-up against #1 UCLA, going ahead 3-0 by 10 minutes into the first half. At that point, UCLA's defense clamped down, and Florida struggled to score for the remainder of the half. Meanwhile, UCLA began to find some rhythm in the attack, and was led by Megan Kaley who created numerous  one-on-one opportunities for herself that she was able to finish. Both teams battled throughout the second half, and UCLA was able to squeeze out a victory against a young Florida team. The matchup of the #1 and #8 seeds ended up being the closest result in the first round of play in the WDIA Championship.

#2 Cal Poly 15, #7 Pittsburgh 8
Cal Poly dominted its opening game against Pittsburgh, setting the tone early by controlling play on both ends of the field. Cal Poly's patient attack was too much for Pittsburgh to handle. Choosing to control the clock for the remaining 10 minutes, Cal Poly showed why they are the two-time defending WDIA champions. Pittsburgh made the most of their opportunities, managing eight goals on the stingy Cal Poly defense.

#3 Michigan 18, #6 VA Tech 10
The ECWLA's VA Tech was unable to stop the offensive charges by the WCLL's Michigan, who went on five and seven goal runs in the first and second halves, respectively. Michigan's Jane Friend set the pace for the Wolverines, controlling all aspects of the game, from goals to assists, to winning ground ball after ground ball. VA Tech's Ashley Maza led her team's effort with four goals.

Semifinals
#1 UCLA 14, #4 Navy 12, 2OT
In the first ever overtime game in WDIA Championship play, UCLA outlasted Navy through two overtimes. Navy controlled play early in the game, leading at the half by two, but by nine minutes into the second half, UCLA had deadlocked the game at 8-8. UCLA capped its three-goal run to the go ahead 9-8 with 20 minutes to play. The Bruins were by the stellar play of Katie Marino and Meghan Brown during their comeback. Navy then answered with goals by WDIA All-Americans Nicole Telesh and Janine Benjamin. UCLA's Megan Kaley shoveled in the tying goal with 6:32 to play. Telesh then responded again with an eight-meter shot with 4:36 to play in regulation. UCLA's Meghan Brown then answered with another tying goal with 2:30 to play. Telesh again had the answer for Navy, scoring again on an eight-meter shot to once again put Navy up by one with 1:24 remaining. Following that goal, UCLA won the draw, set up their offense, and answered again, tying the game at 12 with :39 remaining. Once again, Navy's Telesh gained possession of the ball and would take Navy's last shot. With time running out, UCLA's goalkeeper Katie Gibbs came up with the save to put the game into overtime.

UCLA dominated the overtime, scoring both goals, with the game winner coming from Marino at the 1:09 mark.

#2 Cal Poly 13, #3 Michigan 4
Cal Poly dominated its semifinal matchup with Michigan, once again landing them in the WDIA Championship game, which will feature an all-WWLL matchup of UCLA and Cal Poly. Cal Poly will be looking for their third WDIA championship and have never lost a game in the WDIA Championship tournament, but have lost to the Bruins twice already this season including in the WWLL championship game.

Seven players scored for Cal Poly. Lauren Chase and Ashley Kiersted lead Cal Poly with three goals each, and Bridget Mulhern and Allyson Jantos added two each. Lindsay Kanewischer led the Cal Poly defense to hold Michigan to four goals, three of which were scored by Alyson Gilbride. Michigan's Jackie Fu tallied 15 saves in the goal.