Gettysburg fired its bullets with frequency and effectiveness over the second half of the season, winning 10 straight games to repeat as the NCAA champion and as the No. 1 team in the final Nike/US Lacrosse Division III Women’s Top 20.

In their five-win run through the NCAA tournament, the Bullets vanquished four top-10 foes and two of the best from each of the Capital Athletic and New England Small College Athletic conferences. The final against No. 2 Middlebury — postponed by a day due to severe weather in Salem, Va. — saw the last of Steph Colson’s nine draw controls and Bailey Pilder’s 12 saves give Gettysburg possession for about three of the game’s final four minutes after the Panthers closed to 11-9.

That followed a 12-7 dismantling of then-No. 3 Salisbury in the semifinals, a Centennial Conference championship won at league rival Franklin & Marshall, and a season of best punches thrown at the defending national champions, who will have to prove equally resilient to three-peat next year.

“I communicated that I proud of a lot this season, but mostly that they didn’t live in the past,” Gettysburg coach Carol Cantele said prior to the team’s arrival in Salem Thursday. “They didn’t succumb to the pressure of trying to be like last year’s team. They made their own memories and got into their own groove.’

The Panthers proved worthy adversaries, avenging a regular-season loss to The College of New Jersey in the other semifinal. Middlebury ends in this space where it began, ranked No. 2, preseason No. 1 Lions end at No. 3. The Bullets entered the season in that slot.

The Sea Gulls, like Gettysburg, won 21 games to finish at No. 4, and No. 5 Amherst rose to No. 1 during the season after starting it outside of the top 20.

The 2019 championship weekend is set for May 25-26 at Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va. Johns Hopkins hosts it in Baltimore in 2020, and the event returns to Salem in 2021 and 2022.

Also considered (alphabetical order): Colorado College, Denison, Meredith, Messiah, Mount Union, Stevens, Westfield State

Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings

Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women

HOT

Tufts (+5)

The Jumbos perhaps were unfairly punished in the rankings for a 12-10, NESCAC quarterfinal loss at then-No. 8 Trinity, which represented their fourth defeat of the season to date. Two of the other three were to teams ranked third and fifth at the time, and the margin for the four setbacks totaled just 11 goals. After a 17-8, NCAA first-round win over FDU-Florham, the Jumbos took a 10-6 lead eight minutes into the second half at then-No. 9 F&M. A Diplomat rally ended Tufts’ season, but big wins among a strong strength of schedule boosted its final position.

NOT

St. John Fisher (-5)

The Cardinals had home-field advantage and a day to scout the NCAA first-round game between Messiah and Wesleyan, but still succumbed to the latter, 11-6. The loss dismantled what had been a quietly strong season for the Empire 8 Conference champs.

IN

Catholic

The No. 18 Cardinals completed an up-and-down season mostly on the upswing, defeating Johnson & Wales in the first round of the NCAA tournament before winning at then-No. 17 Rowan in the second round — avenging a regular-season loss to the Profs. Catholic’s season ended in the round of 16 as No. 9 York likewise took vengeance for a regular-season defeat, also ending the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak.

OUT

Messiah

The then-No. 18 Falcons played a strong middle part of their NCAA first-round game against unranked Wesleyan, but a poor start and fizzle of a finish doomed them to a 13-10 loss. After rallying from a 6-2 deficit to tie it at 9 with 20:26 to play, Messiah yielded four straight goals and didn’t get on the board again until it was academic with 1:11 remaining.