Two days after pouring in 24 goals against Richmond, Northwestern's offense was still firing on all cylinders. No. 7 seed Towson tried to trade blows, but the Wildcats had too much firepower and posted a 21-17 victory at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It was quite a weekend for the Northwestern offense overall, and in particular for Selena Lasota and Sheila Nesselbush.
The duo each scored eight goals on Sunday after Lasota had a NCAA tournament record nine on Friday and Nesselbush had six. That's 31 goals from two players in just two games.
After Emily Gillingham put Towson up 11-10 early in the second half, Lasota and Nesselbush combined to score the next five goals of the game. Lasota had three of the goals, including the goal that gave Norhtwestern a lead it would not relinquish.
"She's the type of player that steps up when the pressure is at the highest," said Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller of Lasota. "It's always awesome to have one of those types of players in your corner. She really carried us this weekend."
Shelby Fredericks added five assists for Northwestern and also grabbed a team-best seven draw controls.
Towson was led by Natalie Sulmonte (5g, 2a) and Gillingham (4g, 1a).
Northwestern advances to next weekend's quarterfinals at No. 2 seed North Carolina.
Navy Beats Loyola, Headed Back to Quarterfinals
It's hard enough to beat a quality team once, but how about twice? At their place? On back-to-back weekends?
That's exactly what Navy did, outscoring No. 8 seed Loyola 19-15 to advance to the NCAA quarterfinal round for the second consecutive season. Navy, which upset Loyola in the Patriot League championship game two seasons in a row, has now won nine straight since a regular season loss to Loyola.
"Coming up to Loyola after last weekend's emotional win in the Patriot League Tournament, I want to credit our players for being strong and believing in themselves," said Navy head coach Cindy Timchal. "They saw, once again, a very fierce and well-coached Loyola team today"
Jenna Collins scored five goals, giving her a school record 82 goals this season, but she had plenty of help. Kelly Larkin had a team-high seven points (3g, 4a), giving her 115 points for the season. Julia Collins and Kayla Harris each added four goals as well.
PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER
Jenna Collins had five goals in Navy's 19-15 victory over Loyola, giving her a new school single-season total of 82 goals.
The Mids never trailed in the contest, but Loyola made several runs at Navy before Jenna Collins seemed to have all the answers.
Livy Rosenzweig pulled Loyola to within 4-3 early in the game, but Navy went on a four-goal run with Collins assisting on the first goal and then scoring the next two goals.
A three-goal run by Loyola to open the second half got the Greyhounds within three goals, but Collins stopped the bleeding and started a five-goal streak for Navy.
Finally, Loyola scored four straight to get back to 17-13 down with 13 minutes still to play, but Collins scored her fifth of the game to regain control for Navy.
Rosenzweig, a freshman, finished with five goals and four assists to set a new Loyola (16-5) record with 102 points (55g, 47a) for the season.
Navy (18-3) will play at Maryland next weekend, the same school where their head coach, Timchal, won eight national champiosnhips. Navy has faced Maryland just once since Timchal came to Annapolis, a 2011 NCAA tournament first round game won by the Terps 19-6.
Kings of the Commonwealth
No. 3 seed James Madison had to work, but a frantic flurry to close the first half was key to a 15-12 victory over Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship.
JMU came into the season having not beaten its commonwealth rival, Virginia, since 2011, but has now beaten the Cavaliers twice in one season for the first time since 2000 — the only time JMU ever reached the NCAA semifinal round.
Virginia, which struggled in the second half of the season before pulling things together to rout Stanford 12-3 on Friday night, led 4-2 late in the first half against JMU, but the Dukes ripped off five straight goals in the final five minutes of the first half, including three in the final minute to take a 7-4 halftime lead.
No. 3 @JMULacrosse closes first half with 5 straight goals, three in the final minute ⏱. Dukes lead Virginia 7-4. pic.twitter.com/YdMmsRtR5Q
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) May 13, 2018
The Cavaliers regrouped and put some tension in the game when Avery Shoemaker scored with 9:22 remaining to cut JMU's lead to 12-11. Just over a minute later, Haley Warded scored on a free position shot and then Elena Romesburg scored with 4:24 left and the Dukes were on their way to the quarters.
Kristen Gaudian scored four times, including the game-tying and go-ahead goals during JMU's run to close the first half and Warden also had four goals. Romesburg had three goals, an assist and a team-high seven draw controls.
Sammy Mueller and Shoemaker each scored four times for Virginia (10-10) and Mueller had a game-high nine draw controls.
JMU (19-1) is headed to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2010 and will meet Florida for just the second time ever. Florida routed JMU 21-8 in a 2014 regular season game.