Regis women's lacrosse knocks off Maryville in Midwest Region championship, advances to NCAA DII Final Four - Regis University Athletics (2024)

• Summary
• Box Score

Brooke Groppe, Maryville Athletics

Game Recap: Women's Lacrosse | May 18 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — On the heels of an overtime victory in Thursday's Midwest Regional Tournament semi-finals, the No. 5 ranked Regis University women's lacrosse team provided another thriller on Saturday, edging out top-seeded and No. 8 ranked Maryville, 10-9, to punch the Rangers' ticket back to the NCAA Division II Final Four for the first time since 2019.

The NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse semi-final and championship rounds are scheduled for May 23-25 in Winter Park, Florida. Regis will join other regional winners — Tampa, Adelphi and East Stroudsburg — and will face the No. 3 ranked Tampa Spartans at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Showalter Stadium in Winter Park, Florida.

Junior midfielder Megan Bunker would play the hero Saturday as she drew a foul and cashed in on the ensuing free position opportunity with just five seconds remaining; her lone goal of the afternoon to go with six draw controls and a team-high four ground balls.

With the victory, the Rangers (20-1 overall) avenge an 18-6 loss to Maryville (18-2 overall) suffered during the regular season in Denver and add a Midwest Regional Championship trophy to a 2024 spring that has already included RMAC regular season and tournament titles. The 20 victories thus far in 2024 are also tied for the school record for wins in a season with the 2019 team.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Rangers were able to get off to a strong start on Saturday, scoring the game's first goal at the 12:29 mark of the first quarter as sophom*ore Maggie Schipfer threaded a pass to a cutting Lauren Sheets.

Maryville briefly tied the game at 1-1 at the 9:34 mark, but the Rangers were able to close the first quarter on a 3-0 scoring blitz with goals from sophom*ore Shea Murphy, senior Bailey Truex and graduate student attacker Gabby Rothermund in succession to open up a 5-1 lead.

In the second quarter, each team took a turn making a run at each other as Maryville scored the first five goals of the quarter, taking their first lead of the game at 6-4, but the Rangers countered with a 3-0 run over the final 3:02 of the first half as Schipfer netted two scores and Murphy gave Regis the lead back at 7-6 with 46 seconds remaining in the half.

Goals would be hard to come by for both teams over the final 30 minutes, with Mayville edging the Rangers 2-1 in the third to send the game into the fourth quarter deadlocked at 8-8.
Murphy, who led all Rangers with three goals and five total points, would complete her hat trick at the 14:01 mark of the fourth quarter, where the score remained until Maryville was able to net an equalizer with 2:38 remaining, setting up Saturday's dramatic finish.

Maryville initially won the draw after scoring the game's tying goal, and called timeout with the ball and 1:34 remaining. Coming out of the timeout, the Rangers' defense forced the biggest turnover of the game as senior Lily Ferguson picked off a Lady Saints' pass, completed the clear and pushed Regis into the offensive zone approaching the final minute of regulation.

Maryville would commit two fouls in the final minute, the last being on a driving Bunker with seven seconds remaining that sent her to the free-position circle, where she calmly buried 22^nd goal of 2024 to lift the Rangers to the regional championship and a berth in next week's NCAA Division II Championships.

Schipfer and Sheets would each add two goals apiece, while Bunker, Rothermund and Truex rounded out the Rangers' goal scorers.

Defensively, the trio of Bunker, Truex and junior defender Terah Skillings each forced two turnovers while senior goalkeeper Elizabeth Myotte finished with an even .500 save percentage, stopping nine of the 18 shots on goal she faced.

UP NEXT
Game times for the NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championships semi-finals are currently scheduled for 1 p.m. (MT) and 4:30 p.m. (MT) on Thursday, May 23^rd.

The Rangers will square off against No. 3 ranked Tampa, the South Region champion, in the 4:30 p.m. matchup, hosted at Showalter Stadium in Winter Park, Florida.

Opening ceremonies for the DII Festival are set for Monday, May 20^th at 6 p.m. (ET).