WALLA WALLA, Wash. —
Jasmyne Adame scored the game winner with 4:55 left to help visiting Pacific escape with a 11-10 season-ending lacrosse victory over Whitman on Sunday afternoon at the Whitman Athletic Fields.
With the victory, the Boxers close the season with a 10-4 overall record and a share of the Northwest Conference title with a 7-1 league mark, tied with George Fox. Whitman ends 2016 at 4-4 in conference action and 4-10 on the year.
The Boxers also won the NWC title in 2015, with a perfect 8-0 record and a 14-2 overall mark--giving them a two-year Northwest Conference record of 15-1 and 24-6 overall ledger.
Adame's goal concluded the scoring in a wild game, but not the action. Boxer goalkeeper
Adrienne Salzwedel had to make two saves of Whitman shots in the final three minutes, and she was busy all afternoon, finishing with 17 saves.
Earlier, it appeared as though favorite Pacific would run away with the season finale. The defending NWC champs jumped out to a 3-0 lead, using goals by
April Lanz,
Brittney Bardin and
Meg Chapman to take a three-score lead a little less than ten minutes into the match.
But Whitman quickly rallied back, scoring four goals in a ten-minute span, three of them by Anna Melville. The hosts would go on to take a 5-4 into the halftime break, promising that the match would be a battle.
The teams traded scores in the second half, with neither squad ever leading by more than one goal. Whitman's Lindsay Schwartz pocketed the last score of the match for her team with 8:21 left, but her squad couldn't find the net again.
Lanz led the Boxers with three goals, while
Paisley Hiefield, Adame and Nikki Leeming added two net-finders each. Melville and Schwartz led Whitman with four goals apiece. Whitman goalkeeper Savannah McNichol had nine saves.