BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Trailing by one goal at halftime, the Davenport women's lacrosse team couldn't find the back of the net until there was 45 seconds left in the second half as the Savannah College of Art and Design scored seven times to defeat the Panthers 13-6 in the National Women's Lacrosse League Championship game on a downpour Saturday afternoon at Lindenwood University-Belleville.
 
The Panthers, who made their first appearance in the national tournament's title game, closes the 2015 season 16-4.
 
Brooke Knoll scored two of the Panthers five goals in the first half, Jessica Lemcke, Taylor Balch and Kaitlyn Lowden each tallied one. Mackenzie VanDerWarf had the only goal in the second half for Davenport.
 
VanDerWarf also led the defensive effort with three caused turnovers and picked up nine groundballs. Fellow senior Natalie McHale was not that far behind with two caused takeaways and eight groundballs.
 
Samantha Powers made five saves on the day, including four in the opening period.
 
The Fighting Bees (15-2) dominated the shooting category 44-34, especially in the second half (23-14).
 
Both teams would trade off the lead throughout the first half. The Panther struck first with a goal by Balch at 25:16 but the Bees answered back and took a 2-1 lead with 20:34 left. Lemcke and Knoll went scored back-to-back goals for their first lead.
 
Trailing by two again, Lowden and Knoll got Davenport back up front with goals in the span of two minutes, giving the Panthers a 5-4 lead with 6:58 left. The Bees would jumped to a 6-5 lead by scoring in the remaining 2:20 in the period.
 
After a brief intermission, both teams would go scoreless within the first 13 minutes of the game. It was until the 17:21 mark that started a seven-goal barrage by the Bees that set the tone of the championship game. Davenport was held scoreless until VanDerWarf's goal with 45 seconds left.
 
Women's Lacrosse Contact: David Gerhart | 616-554-5045 | dgerhart@davenport.edu
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