Women's lacrosse runs past Oxy into SCIAC title match

ORANGE, Calif. – Junior Becka Wachtel scored five goals to lead the Chapman University women's lacrosse team to a 17-10 win over Occidental in the SCIAC semifinal. Wachtel scored three of a five-goal run that put Chapman firmly in command.

For the second year in a row and third time in five years, the Panthers earned a spot in the championship match of the SCIAC Tournament. Chapman will head to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps next Saturday for the championship match.

Occidental and Chapman traded goals early on. After the Tigers tied the match at 4-4 with 18:26 left in the first half, the Panthers embarked on a 5-0 run that put them comfortably in front the rest of the night. Freshman Danelle Lucero sparked the run with a man-up goal. Wachtel took over after Lucero's goal with back-to-back-to-back goals the put the Panthers up 8-4. Sophomore Danielle Zahn finished off the run with a goal with 12:22 to go in the first.

Oxy's Allesandra Pellicia scored consecutive goals for the Tigers in the next four minutes but the Panthers answered back with goals from junior Stacey Zuppa and Lucero to end the half with an 11-6 lead.

Senior Tara Sonnemaker made eight of her 12 saves in the second half, including several one-on-one saves that took away golden scoring opportunities for the Tigers. While Sonnemaker kept Occidental off the board, Chapman scored the first five goals of the second half to go up 16-6 with 21:26 to go and cruised the rest of the way.

Zuppa scored four goals on the night to go along with four assists, six ground balls, five draw controls and three caused turnovers. Senior Kelsey Mackin scored twice and had eight ground balls.

Chapman will play CMS for the title on May 6 with a match time yet to be announced.

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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