Sanborn, Garnet Capture Seven Sisters Title
2006 Seven Sisters Lacrosse Championships
3/19: Sanborn, Garnet Capture Seven Sisters Title
Swarthmore led all the way in the 2006 Seven Sisters Championship game and held on for an 11-8 victory. Junior Katie Crawford scored four goals, and senior Niamh Shortt and junior Athena Samaras scored a hat trick each in the winning effort, and sophomore midfielder Megan Sanborn won Most Valuable Player honors.
This was Swarthmore's third Seven Sisters final appearance and first title of the 2005-06 school year; the Garnet field hockey and basketball teams also made it to the title game. This is the second Seven Sisters title for Garnet lacrosse; their previous title came in 1995. Swarthmore was last 6-0 during the 1994 season, when they opened the year with seven straight wins.
Samaras got the Garnet on the board 2:12 into the game, and scored her second goal just 46 seconds later, taking a Shortt pass while streaking down the field and one-timing the ball into the back of the net.
Garnet goaltender Susannah Blair '08 was hot early as well. The sophomore stopped an early free-position attempt from Wellesley standout Maxine Brownstein and made two more saves on the same possession before the Garnet were able to clear.
Samaras nearly completed the hat trick in the first 10 minutes after a Lindsay Roth '07 feed found her open in the middle, but the ensuing shot went just wide. A minute later, Crawford snuck the ball past Blue goaltender Kristin Jaronczyk, forcing a Wellesley timeout.
The break seemed to refocus the visitors, and shortly after, midfielder Amber Evans got the Blue on the board, beating Blair at 10:99. Several minutes later, Brownstein got another free position opportunity and did not miss again, shooting it high into the net at 16:18.
Swarthmore made a couple of bids to stretch the lead back to two, but Jaronczyk made a pair of saves at point-blank range and stopped a free position attempt by Roth. Finally, Heidi Fieselmann snuck the ball past Jaronczyk into the lower left corner at 20:13 for a 4-2 Swarthmore lead.
Evans responded for Wellesley just under three minutes later, prompting a Swarthmore timeout.
The Garnet controlled play through most of the remainder of the half, but could not get past the suddenly red-hot Jaronczyk, and the margin remained 4-3 at the break.
Samaras flourished once again at the start of the second half, scoring what is sure to go down as one of the nicest goals of the season. It started with Sanborn taking the ball from in back of the net to beside the goal mouth. Sanborn then fed Samaras, who was running down the left side. Samaras then changed direction, spun fully around in midair, and shot the ball past Jaronczyk in the same motion.
Niamh Shortt scored the next two Garnet goals, the first coming on a free position attempt. Sandwiched in between was Wellesley star senior Katie Moseley's first goal of the match.
After a lengthy scoring drought, Crawford ran around a pair of defenders to get an open look and deposited the ball into the net for an 8-4 Garnet lead with just over 15 minutes to play. Blair kept the margin at four with a free position save a few minutes later. Two Blue goals sandwiched around Shortt's third goal of the half cut the margin to three at 9-6 with 8:23 to play. About four minutes later, Wellesley senior Abby Baird was fouled from behind on a breakaway attempt; after she converted the ensuing free position attempt, the Blue were just two goals behind.
But Sanborn and the Garnet won the ensuing draw, and just 15 seconds after Baird's goal, Crawford took an Anna de Regt '09 feed and once again found the back of the net. Under a minute later, Sanborn further squashed the Wellesley comeback with a goal of her own. Baird took an Evans feed right in front of the net and beat Blair to cut the marign to 11-8 with just over a minute to go, but defender Cara Tigue '06 scooped up the ball after the draw and the Garnet held the ball until time expired.
Sanborn and Roth were named to the All-Tournament Team, which was selected by coaches of the eight competing schools. Sanborn finished behind only Brownstein in the voting, conducted after the first day of play; it was Roth's second straight all-Seven Sisters selection. Brownstein, Moseley, and Evans represented the Blue on the all-tourney team.
All-Tournament Team
Megan Sanborn -- Swarthmore (MVP)
Maxine Brownstein -- Wellesley
Ali Fantl -- Vassar
Caitlin Taylor -- Mount Holyoke
Sara Smyth -- Smith
Katie Moseley -- Wellesley
Alex Shookhoff -- Haverford
Zoe Fuller-Young -- Bryn Mawr
Ariel Nelson -- Vassar
Amber Evans -- Wellesley
Lindsay Roth -- Swarthmore
Marika Austin -- Mount Holyoke