HICKORY, N.C. -- The Lenoir-Rhyne Women's Lacrosse Team is heading to Wise, Va. to take on the UVA Wise Cavaliers in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on Tuesday with the opening draw set for 4 p.m. The Bears and Cavaliers tied for fourth place in the SAC regular season standings but the Cavaliers earned the No. 4 seed and the right to host the fifth-seeded Bears thanks to a 16-14 regular season victory on March 22.
The Bears head into the SAC Tournament playing their best lacrosse of the season. LR took second-place Newberry to overtime in the regular season finale before narrowly falling 11-10 in double OT. The prior game, LR took on third-place Limestone and hung stride-for-stride with the Saints before falling 15-13. The Bears have proven they can play with the best teams in the league and would earn a chance to play the league's top seed, Wingate, with a win over the Cavaliers on Tuesday afternoon.
The Bears are anchored by one of the best goalies in Division II in graduate student
Teanna Sieben. Sieben broke the single-game record for most saves with 21 stops in the regular season finale against Newberry, re-breaking her own record of 19 which she set earlier in the 2023 season against #10 Rollins. Sieben ranks sixth in the nation in save percentage, fourth in the nation in saves and owns the program's all-time record for career saves. The Saskatchewan, Canada native needs just 16 saves to break her own single-season mark for most saves in a year which stands at 197 from 2022.
Along with Sieben,
Isabelle Dunnam gives the LR defense another record breaker. Dunnam set the program mark for most caused turnovers in a career, passing Claire Wach's 95 which stood since 2016. Dunnam currently sits at 123 career CT's, shattering Wach's mark. This year, Dunnam ranks 10th in NCAA Division II with 2.12 caused turnovers per game and also leads LR with 40 ground balls on the season. She will be joined in the starting lineup with teammate
Liz Black. The experienced duo have combined for 106 career starts.
Offensively, the Bears are paced by a trio of 30-goal scorers in 2023.
Chloe Christensen leads LR with 37 goals and has found another level in the final three games, scoring 15 of those goals in the Bears final four games of the regular season. The sophomore also paces LR in draw controls on the year with 57.
Kaitlyn Cavanaugh is LR's leader in points with 63 and has done so on the strength of 32 goals and 31 assists. Cavanaugh's 31 helpers rank as the fifth-most in a single season and boosts her career total to 66, which places her fourth in program history. Cavanaugh needs just two points to move into ninth in program history as she enters play with 128 career points. The 30-goal scoring club is rounded out by
Ellie Campbell who has tallied an even 30 goals on the campaign and earned SAC Player of the Week honors with her four-goal, one-assist effort in a win over Montevallo on February 19.
LR will need to take care of the ball on Tuesday as UVA Wise will enter the game ranked third in the nation in caused turnovers per game at 13.50. The Cavaliers are middle of the road in goals per game (13.56, 39th in the nation) and scoring defense (11.00, 40th in the nation). Kameryn Darrington is coming off a SAC Defensive Player of the Week award as she led the team to a 14-7 win over Catawba with four ground balls and four caused turnovers to go with her first career goal. Six different players have at least 30 points for the Cavaliers, led by 49 from Caitlyn Schultz and 39 by Abby Stoffelen.
The Cavs win over LR on March 22 was their last in a four-game winning streak that moved the team to 7-3. However, UVA Wise went just 3-3 down the stretch including a blowout loss at Wingate (20-1) and a tough road loss to Tusculum (14-9).
The all-time series is tied at 3 between the two teams with each team going a perfect 3-0 on their home fields. This will be the second meeting in the SAC Tournament between the two programs with UVA Wise owning a 12-11 overtime victory to close out the 2021 season. Each of the Bears final two SAC Tournament games have resulted in overtime losses with LR dropping last season's Quarterfinal game to Lincoln Memorial 12-11 in triple overtime.
LR is 6-8 all-time in SAC Tournament play and will be in search of their first win since 2019.
