GRANVILLE, Ohio-- Denison University has advanced to the North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Lacrosse Tournament Championship for the fifth-straight season and will host third-seeded Wooster on Saturday, May 5 at 1 p.m. from Piper Stadium. The winner of the NCAC Tournament Championship will receive the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Denison (15-2) advances to the title game after a 24-8 win over Allegheny in the NCAC Semifinals. Claudia Rafi scored five goals and Kiely Noonan added four goals and three assists as the Big Red ran their winning streak to 11. In the win over the Gators, Denison also broke the program's single-season record for goals with 294. The previous mark of 285 was set in 2012. They need just one more victory to equal the single-season record for wins (16) set by the 1992 squad.
The Big Red is led offensively by Noonan (63 goals) and Rafi (49 goals). Noonan's 63 goals rank fifth in goals in a season at DU. She needs only two goals to move into fourth and four to jump to third. In only 36 career games, Noonan has scored 111 goals.
Wooster (12-3) is playing in its first NCAC Tournament championship game since 2013 after a 14-11 win over No. 2 seed, Oberlin. The Fighting Scots feature a balanced scoring attack that is led by Alexa Mellis' 24 goals. Emma Lawrence leads the team in points with 46 (33 goals, 13 assists).
This is the 25th year of the NCAC Women's Lacrosse Tournament and Denison is appearing in its 18th tournament championship game. The Big Red is 12-5 in the previous 17 NCAC Tournament Championship contests, having won the last four dating back to 2014. The Big Red won the inaugural NCAC Tournament in 1994.
The Denison Sports Network will provide a live video broadcast of the championship game beginning at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.
